Albania

[AL] Parliament Elects New NCRT Members - NCRT Imposes Fines

IRIS 2010-8:1/7

Ilda Londo

Albanian Media Institute

The Albanian Parliament elected three new members of the Këshilli Kombëtar i Radios dhe Televizionit (National Council of Radio and Television - NCRT) on 22 July 2010. Two of them were re-elected for a second term, while the third one is the newest member of the Council. The election of these members came after a long period during which the seats were vacant, due to the boycott of parliamentary sessions by the opposition.

Following the law amended in 2006 and the political agreement that followed, the NCRT’s membership is chosen from among the proposals of four potential members for each vacant seat from both parliamentary groups and professional associations. From these candidates the Media Commission shortlists no more than two candidates for each seat and proposes them to Parliament for the final vote (see IRIS 2006-3: 9/13). However, given the political stalemate during the last year and the opposition’s absence from the Parliament for most of the time, it became impossible to elect the new NCRT members until recently. The absence of new members led to a failure of NCRT meetings to reach a quorum and hence, council decisions on media regulation, licenses and other issues were postponed for a significant period.

Shortly after the election of the new members, on 28 July 2010 the NCRT decided to impose a fine of ALL 1 million (about EUR 7,250.00) on, and limit to five years the license of, Tring TV, a digital terrestrial and satellite platform. This decision was made after noticing that the platform had broadcast programmes the rights to which it did not possess.

NCRT has also fined several local cable TV stations: Tv Jug and TV AVN on piracy claims, after a monitoring carried out in December last year. Six other local TV stations have been warned on this matter. Other stations have been penalised because they have applied for a license that covers a larger area and have extended their broadcasting to this larger area, without waiting for the NCRT approval.

These fines are part of the NCRT’s continuous struggle against piracy and violation of licensing terms by TV stations in the country.