Albania's Television Anarchy: Report launched in Tirana
The Open Society Institute's recent report on Albania was launched on 2 October 2008 in Tirana. The report warns that the disorder in Albania's broadcast sector is driving down the quality of information that is available to most citizens. The public service broadcaster, Radio-Television of Albania (RTSH), is chronically under-funded and unable to arrest a long slide in programme standards.
The commercial sector is lively and chaotic. The lack of audience research discourages foreign investment, while poor employment conditions make journalists more vulnerable to political pressure. (Read the press release for a summary of the most topical conclusions of the report.)
The launch of the Open Society Institute's report in Tirana was well attended. Around 40 media professionals, members of Parliament, regulators, international officials and others packed into a conference room in central Tirana. The event was organised by the Albanian Media Institute (AMI), and chaired by AMI executive director Remzi Lani.
- Diana Kalaja, Deputy General Director of RTSH (centre), Aleksander Furrxhi, BBC correspondent (right)
Mark Thompson of the OSF Media Program started by describing the TV Across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008 project as a whole. He summarised the findings of the nine country reports, indicating pan-European trends in audience fragmentation, ownership consolidation and technical convergence. Two sub-trends across much of central and eastern Europe were also noted: first, regulatory passivity, and second, a worrying process of re-politicisation of broadcast media. (These and other findings will shortly be published in an Overview, available on this site later in October.)
Summarising her report, author Ilda Londo, also from the AMI, emphasised the funding difficulties facing the public service broadcaster RTSH (Radio Televizioni Shqiptar, Albanian Radio-Television), the difficulty of defining the public service mission in Albania, the challenges facing the broadcast regulator, and the need for wider public debate on media issues.
In the discussion that followed, a senior manager from RTSH praised the report and urged the Media Commission in Parliament to study it closely. With the licence fee currently being paid by only 18 per cent of citizens, and raising only 9 per cent of RTSH's funds, the public service broadcaster's financial situation is desperate. One of Albania's new generation of political bloggers asked what 'citizen journalism' could offer in Albania today. Others in the room noted the lack of reliable audience research.
With Parliament due to discuss the new electronic media law in its next session, and the European Commission now preparing its next periodic report on Albania (due for delivery in November 2008), there was agreement that this report was well timed to make an impact.
