Dispute Settlement in the Albanian Media Council

2014

The study analyses media freedom and pluralism in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia) in light of the EU enlargement policy. Despite the different stages of their EU accession paths, these countries share similar challenges, even if they are of different intensities. The study analyses the overall legal framework and its unsatisfactory levels of implementation, the role and the independence of PSB, the media market, and the status of journalists. It also outlines country-specific profiles, regarding these categories. The paper outlines and analyses the current EU policies and financial instruments to foster media freedom and media pluralism in the region, including the Stabilisation and Association Process and specific acquis. It also analyses the issues in the context of the EU 'internal' and 'external' policy on media freedom and media pluralism. The study outlines the complementary roles of the CoE and the OSCE as setting common standards on media freedom in Europe and the EU institutions as being the main engine and guarantor for their implementation. Finally, the recommendations point towards the EU establishing a more long-term, integrated and comprehensive strategy of external help, monitoring and capacity building, as well as further coordination with the CoE and OSCE.

European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences, 2019

The journalist's social and professional status is a topic that requires a multidisciplinary approach to identify the ways of information and its assignment. Scientific reviews are subjects of a study in the interest of mass communication science, focusing on the field of journalism and communication politics on themes and expressed through the knowledge of people responses and their opinion. Nowadays in the time of modernity which is characterized by a fast increase, distribution and continuous interaction through media across the globe, thus making the mediation process an essential feature of society and of everyday life. Problems come to light when a false and defamatory statement about an individual is published to a third party, causing damage to the reputation of the person. Each state creates defamation laws, although Kosovo still has no law regarding defamation for online media even though it may be considered responsible for defamatory communications. Along with the tr...

Self-censorship is one of the biggest challenges that the Albanian media faces today.In these 20 years of progressive development, the situation has been accompanied by various phenomena, from which the most apparent and definitely with direct consequences has been media ownership – where the first journalists crossed to powerful business, which implies large media interests. In Albania now it is generally seen that every big private company has a TV channel or a radio, a magazine or newsletter, not forgetting the opportunities that Web 2.0 offers. In such conditions, for journalists it is rather difficult to do journalism. All these influence in a compelling authority and authoritative editorial policy based on certain benefits for media managers or owners vs. media reporters. In this paper, we will answer to the following questions: What are the main reasons of self-censorship in Albanian media? What are the differences between the working conditions of Albanian journalists working in Albanian media means and Albanian journalistworking as correspondent of different foreign media channels? What are the main reasons of the journalist who have left their active journalism life to work in other sectors? The research will be carried out based on literature that explains the phenomenon of self-censorship, as well as interviews conducted with active journalists, Albanian correspondents working for foreign media, journalists who have left their active journalism to work in similar sectors of communication. At the end of the study it is expected to result in the main causes that promote self-censorship in the Albanian media newsrooms, the clarified conditions and editorial policies of foreign medias which create the best professional opportunities to the Albanian correspondents, as well as the lack of security that accompanies the journalists during their work which forces them to change the job. Keywords – self-censorship, Albanian media, media owners, journalism.

Prizren Social Science Journal , 2020

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of how the media generally function in relation to their responsibilities to the state. Knowing that despite the legal protection enjoyed by the media under international conventions and in general domestic legislation, all criminal offenses committed through the media are defined in one way or another by adequate legal norms to prevent and sanction such offenses abusive. During the different periods of law adoption in Kosovo, it is evident that the sphere of criminal and civil liability for criminal offenses committed through the media has changed. This is due to the fact that various provisions have not infrequently been used to restrict freedom of expression, which is otherwise the most basic, but also the most sensitive provision provided by Article 10 of the International Covenant on Human Rights. Therefore, in this paper will be explained the fluidity of the legislation on criminal and civil liability for criminal offenses committed through the media and that starting from international conventions, the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, international legislation compared to domestic, comparison of provisions which with the old codes have been defined as criminal offenses, while today those offenses are considered of a civil character and for these offenses there is only civil liability.

2015

Pravosuđe i mediji (Judiciary and Media), Institut za kriminološka i sociološka istraživanja, Beograd, 145-154, 2017

Accession negotiations with the EU (Chapter 23) are an ideal opportunity for overview and systematical approach to resolving of numerous issues that have been treated ad hoc, partially and/or inconsistently for decades in the Serbian judiciary. Relations between judiciary and media belong to this category and have to be considered from three perspectives: The first of all, the improvement of the transparency within judiciary, seen as a right of media to inform citizens on all important facts of judiciary, shouldn't grow in inappropriate commenting of judicial decisions and pressure that harms independence of that branch of power but also of the judicial office holders; In parallel, relations between judiciary and media are of the significant importance when it comes to criminal proceedings. Namely, there is a need to find an ideal balance between the right on information about committed crimes and criminal proceedings on one side, and obligation to respect presumption of innocence of accused person. Also, media coverage shouldn't jeopardize safety of victims and witnesses or cause secondary victimization. In addition to this, media coverage has a strong influence on efficiency of criminal proceedings, especially through the leakage of information during the criminal investigation. The last, but not less important factor that determinates quality of the judiciary-media relations lies in efficiency of their mutual, but also cooperation with police, in protecting journalists and efficient prosecution of crimes against journalists. All above-mentioned issues are subject of the European Commission's recommendations that Serbia should implement in accordance with the Action Plan for Chapter 23.

Social Sciences, 2014

In the era of democratization of institutions in all spheres of social living and globalization on a large scale imposed by the rapid technical-technological development and modern communication, the issue of media ethics has become all the problematic and has been connected with the moral responsibility of journalists and the application of professional standards and criteria. In the countries with young democracies and transition of systems of social establishment among which is also the Republic of Macedonia, the behavior of the media and the rules of conduct of professionals were often prescribed and imposed by others: the government, the state, the ruling political parties or the media close to them. Respecting professional standards and criteria, especially in research journalism, is often reflected in media practice with certain misfortunes for journalists, administrative barriers, bans and court prosecutions. With the new national media laws, the fundamental human right to be appropriately informed is limited and repressed, and thus there is a maximal affirmation of a new, made-up and artificially construed right without any basis arising from the relevant international legal regulative. Journalistic ethics must firstly call upon the public which the media content is intended for, upon the goodness of those who are in dire need of the announcement and the content that can deeply influence their lives, in a good or a bad way. The ethic code of journalists and other media professionals is only the second name of the rules of conduct based on which the journalistic profession is founded. These rules make sense only if they arise from a broader social context that characterizes the acceptance of a certain system of universal values.

As it is seen from the journalists’ points of view, censorship and self-censorship occur through various forms. This study analyzes the mechanism in details that encourages self-censorship of the Albanian journalists in information newsrooms, mostly focused on the impact that politics and politicians have on them, based on the relationship they have built with the media owners. The main hypothesis is: Albanian media environment reflects the phenomenon of censorship and self-censorship as a result of the recent past and the current economic and political situation of the media. Consequently, this situation affects the professional standards of the Albanian media and it leads the journalists toward a permanent self-limitation, which makes them think more about the reaction that different political, media and economic actors might have rather than the fair information of the public. The study is mainly based on the research paradigm in social sciences. For the fulfillment of this study qualitative and quantitative methods have been used. Seven interviews have been conducted with editor in chiefs of the main Albanian media, as well as eight representatives from politics who have had experiences in both media and public engagements. The data of this survey are collected from 307 Albanian journalists and they are very important in order to understand the self-censorship that stems from politics. The study concludes that the politics, politicians and the relations they build with media owners, are an important source for their self-censoring. Keywords: self-censorship, Albanian journalists, politics.

Vision International Scientific Journal, 2022

The main duty of the press law, which is the duty of transmitting information to people objectively, and the principle of respecting the dignity, dignity and private life of the person within the scope of basic human rights and dignity, and especially the widespread crimes of insult and slander, at this point, the European Union law attaches importance and therefore it is in question. violations will be punished. The ways in which these regulations are regulated within the legal framework and especially within the framework of the press and media law will be examined in this scientific study. Although the privacy of private life is regulated in many laws and international conventions, there is no clear definition of what the private life is. However, with the rapidly developing technology and the use of social media, it has become quite difficult to surround the privacy of private life with concrete and clear rules. Although the terms "family", "housing", "communication" in paragraph 1 of Article 8 of the ECHR also constitute different elements of "private life", which constitute a whole, regulations have been made by the legislator in order to protect the principle of privacy in the domestic law of North Macedonia. From the point of view of Public Law, Criminal Responsibility for any interference with the principle of privacy is regulated in Article 11 of the Press Law of North Macedonia. It has been seen that the press and the media, which some scientists see as the fourth power, reach large masses today, and that the written and visual media bring along the sharing of information that harms the dignity of individuals and other basic human rights and freedoms, especially the crime of insult and slander, so the legislator takes every effort to prevent these violations and makes legal arrangements.