Albania Rejects Fining TV Stations For Bias

Source: 
Balkan Insight
Publication date: 
Jun 02 2015

Albania's Central Election Commission has rejected proposals from the bipartisan Media Monitoring Board to fine seven news television stations for offering unequal amounts of coverage to political parties campaigning for the local elections on June 21.

The Commission ruled by four to three against the proposed fines on Monday in a vote aparently determined by the political affiliations of the board members.

The Media Monitoring Board, which is bipartisan but controlled by the opposition, said seven TV televisions aired several hours more live coverage for government-affiliated parties while the public television aired more news coverage for the opposition parties.

According to the board, some television stations offered several hundred more minutes of live transmissions to government-affiliated parties.

In one striking case, Onufri TV, a local television in Berat in central Albania, offered 129 minutes of coverage for the Socialist Movement for Integration, a coalition party in the government, about 20 minutes of coverage for the main governing Socialist Party and zero minutes for the opposition.

Antena Nord, a local station in northern town of Shkodra, offered 231 minutes of coverage for the ruling parties and only 47 minutes for the opposition in the first week of the campaign on 22-27 May.  

“Four members of the Monitoring Board proposed fining these television stations 1.5 million leks [11,000 euros],” Basir Collaku, from the board, recalled.

But the three left-wing board members disagreed and instead proposed that TV stations should compensate opposition parties with more coverage over the rest of the campaign.

“We agreed on these figures [about unbalanced coverage] but disagreed over the proposal of fines,” Florion Serjani, a member of the Monitoring Board, said. “The fines will not resolve the problems,” he added.

Maklen Misha, another board member, attributed the unbalanced coverage to the more extensive political activities of the government coalition compared to the relative lack of activity on the part of the opposition.

 

Source: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/central-election-commission-spar...