Koloreto Cukali is a writer, film producer, radio journalist and is the Chairman of the Albania Media Council. He has been instrumental, not only in the fight for free media and the protection of Albanian journalists, but also in promoting ethical standards and professionalism in the industry.
How would you describe the current media situation in Albania?
It is bad, very bad.
CoOVID-19 has hit many businesses and media is one of those that got hit hard. Even traditional media and I could mention the names of many big broadcasters that are laying off staff or decreasing wages.
This has a direct effect on the quality of reporting, which even before the pandemic, was not at its best. The government refusing to include journalists in the so-called “war wages” has also helped in making the situation worse.
Besides the difficulties in coping financially with the pandemic, another obstacle is the active undermining by the Government of independent reporting. The information is deeply monopolised, transparency is at its lowest, access is refused, and medical staff are not allowed to speak to journalists without permission of their superior. The Albanian Government has killed the press conferences refusing to take questions and reducing the information of the public to the mere reading of official declarations.
Why do you think things are deteriorating? What is causing the backslide?
First, it is one of the side effects of the pandemic. The government started coping with it using the war rhetoric and since the beginning, the media was considered to be on the side of the enemy. If you remember the voice message of the PM Rama sent to Albanian Vodafone users telling them to protect themselves from the media as well as COVID-19. Then, the fear of the pandemic was used as “permission” to lower the accountability standards even further by those in power.
But this situation is not new, it just was made worse. I believe that the less balance of power there is in a country, the less internal democracy there is within the political parties, and the less represented people are in a parliament, the more authoritarian the power holders (or grabbers) become. And they cannot hold onto that power for long unless they control the media narrative. That’s why they try to buy the media, and when they cannot, they attack it.
Realistically, do you see things improving in the next 12 months, 2 years, 5 years?
If we expect the economy to perform worse, we must expect the media to be weaker economically and the government to be more aggressive to control the narrative of the failure.
So, in the near future the situation of the media does not look bright. Nonetheless, I’m inclined to believe that the darkest hour is that before dawn. I really believe this is our darkest hour. I hope we can find a way to survive. When I say “we” I mean the progressive forces of the country, professional and honest journalists of Albania, as well as the literate citizens of this land.
Do you feel the government’s attitude towards the media is in line with its EU obligations?
Of course, it is not. The country’s lower ranking for the media freedom index clearly indicates that. There are two reasons for the un-European attitude towards media. The economic failures, the overall governing underperformance, the screaming poverty, the neo-cult of ‘the One’, the corrosive corruption, the loss of hope, all these need a) somebody to blame, and media is the desired target, and, b) shut the mouth of the critics, kill the truth, bury the facts, and there again, go on hitting the media.
What are the biggest issues you hear of, faced by journalists in Albania today?
I will name three of them:
- Lack of ethics, which translates in lack of trust from the public.
- The owners. They are often using their media to protect their own interests, political, economic or personal, instead of the interest of the public. To achieve this, they add pressure to journalists to make their bidding. Journalists may not fear political pressures, but it is not easy to cope with unethical demands of the owner.
- Journalists have no unions, sometimes they don’t even have contracts, so, they are unprotected in their workplace.
How is the AMC supporting them?
Media has so many issues and we are trying to tackle them one by one. First, let’s try and raise the professionalism. We are trying to unify the media around one main objective: raising the ethical standards of reporting.
We helped to create the Alliance for Ethical Media, which we hope to continue building on after the pandemic. This is a good start. Let’s not forget, a strong media will need a strong citizens community to support. The people only can help the media be stronger, to protect them in return.
