While the controversial anti-defamation package has not been on the agenda of the Albanian parliament for just over a year it still needs to be formally withdrawn, which will now take place, said the government on Tuesday.
The package would see all online media brought under the jurisdiction of a body which could hand down fines and enforce penalties on any media it says has violated a set of rather vague rules. Penalties would be given without any judicial oversight.
A government spokesperson clarified for EURACTIV that, “the law has not been on the agenda for over a year, but now it will be withdrawn formally.”
The package was vehemently opposed by the European Commission, Council of Europe, the Venice Commission and a long list of local and international media and rights organisations, who called it draconian and said it would significantly impact the country’s media landscape.
The law was voted on by the Socialist majority but then vetoed by then-president Ilir Meta who returned it to lawmakers. It sat on the agenda of parliament for over two years, where it could be passed at any moment with the ruling majority, in a “sword of Damocles” situation for Albanian media.
But for the last year, it was not on the agenda and the government said it has been informally withdrawn. Socialist Party Whip Taulant Balla told BIRN that the law will now be formally withdrawn as it was a procedural oversight that it had not happened so far.
“The law will be withdrawn, it was a procedural oversight that was not withdrawn in time,” he said.
