Albania

[AL] Annual Report on Broadcasters Rejected

IRIS 2002-4:1/6

Hamdi Jupe

Albanian Media Monitoring Center

The Parliament of the Republic of Albania rejected the Annual Report of the National Council of RadioTelevision, the state authority for the licensing and monitoring of private radio and television in Albania, regarding the activity that occurred in 2001.

The Annual Report of the National Council, according to law no. 8410 of 30 September 1998 "On private and public radio and television in the Republic of Albania" is presented to the Parliament every year and has to be approved by 2/3 of the votes of all the Members of Parliament. This qualified majority of votes, required by law, is intended to protect the activities of the Council from arbitrary political interventions by the political parties in the Parliament. The National Council of Radio-Television is an independent body. The seven members of the Council are elected by the Parliament for a 5-year-period, no more than twice in succession. It communicates only with the Parliament through the annual report. The Council is composed of well-known intellectuals from different fields of culture.

The rejection of the report is linked to the conflict between the Council and a section of Albanian private radio and television over the Council's reproach that part of the private electronic media do not observe some of the obligations provided by the aforementioned law no. 8410. If the Parliament does not approve the report in the coming year, the Council has to be dissolved.