Albania

[AL] Bill on Digital Broadcasting Rejected

IRIS 2005-7:1/9

Hamdi Jupe

Albanian Media Monitoring Center

On 19 May 2005 the Parliament of the Republic of Albania rejected a bill on digital terrestrial and satellite broadcasting in Albania, presented by a group of Members of Parliament. Experts from the OSCE and the Council of Europe had offered their expertise to prepare and approve a temporary law on digital broadcasting. This expertise has not been taken into consideration by the authors of the bill.

In July 2004, the private Albanian broadcasting company, ”Digit-alb”, started broadcasting digitally, using four frequencies without the authorization of the Keshilli Kombetar i Radios dhe Televizioneve (National Council of Radio and Television). This caused serious irritation in the market of the electronic media.

The representatives of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and European Union in Tirana published a joint statement and appreciated the decision of the Albanian Parliament on the rejection of the bill. They declared that they will be ready to contribute to the preparation of a new bill in accordance with European standards for digital broadcasting.


References

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  • Decision of the Albanian Parliament on the rejection of the draft-law on digital broadcasting, dated 19 May 2005

  • Joint statement of the OSCE Presence, CoE office and EU Delegation in Tirana, dated 19 May 2005

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.