The Albanian government has proposed changes to the law on audiovisual media which aim to increase the protection of children, provide better access for people with special needs, and improve ownership transparency, one of the biggest issues facing the local media landscape.
Albania has declined over the last few years in the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index and it has been regularly and sharply criticised by local and international stakeholders on a range of issues. These include ownership in the hands of powerful businessmen, unethical reporting and blackmail, verbal attacks from politicians, fake news, and cases of violence by police against media workers.
The proposal aims to exercise more supervision over audiovisual media service providers, particularly children’s rights and advertising that they might see. It will clamp down on any content that could harm the physical, mental, or moral development of minors. These measures can include broadcast times, age verification tools or other technical measures. Furthermore, children’s data should not be collected or processed for commercial purposes such as direct marketing or profiling.
The draft law also introduces a reformulation of the provisions that prohibit the transmission of programs that incite hatred or discrimination. The bill stipulates that audiovisual media service providers must not broadcast programs with content that incites violence or hatred against a group of persons or a member of a group on grounds such as gender, race, color, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion , belief, political opinion, nationality, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation.
There have been many incidents in recent years where TV shows have invited volatile guests to discuss inflammatory topics and have allowed hate speech to be broadcast freely.
The bill proposes to ban the placement of direct sales during children’s programs. Current law provides that the broadcast of programs for minors may be interrupted by advertising or direct sales spots no more often than every 30 minutes, if the duration of the program is more than 30 minutes.
The draft law also specifies that audiovisual broadcasting services cannot be sponsored by companies, persons or enterprises, whose main activity is the production or trade of electronic cigarettes as well as refill containers, along with other cigarette products which are also provided in the current law.
