The Regional Media Conference took place online today, organized by the Albanian Helsinki Committee and supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Albania.
Taking place over two days, it brought together some of the leading media experts and journalists in the region. Day one included a speech by Ambassador Guusje Korthals Altes and Executive Director of the AHC Erida Skendaj.
A variety of panels have taken place, such as Digital Media in a New Era: The route to self-regulation, ethics, and independence with journalist Adi Krasta, Sjoerd de Jong the Dutch media ombudsman, and Besar Likmeta, Editor in Chief at BIRN Albania. Also taking place in the discussion were journalists from Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, as well as representatives from the OSCE Presence in Albania and the Council of Europe Office in Tirana.
This morning, Exit took part in a panel called Self Regulation vs Regulation. Moderated by the head of the Albanian Media Council Koloreto Cukali, it included speeches from Vasko Poptrevski in North Macedonia, Paula Gori from the European Digita Media Observatory/European Institute at Florence University. Others involved in the event included Violeta Hyseni Kelemendi from the Kosovo Independent Media Commission, Marina Tuneva from the Council of Media Ethics of Macedonia, Amela Odobasic. from the Regulatory Communication Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Klodiana Kapo from Faktoje and Lorin Kadiu from Citizens Channel.
Alice Taylor, Co-Editor at Exit spoke about the platform’s journey from a blog site in 2015 and the various steps taken to improve ethics and standards. For example, the independence and ethics audit, membership of the Ethical Media Alliance, and the publication of funding, ownership, policies, and organizational structure on the website.
She added that Albania also has to tackle the issue of the public lack of trust in media for self-regulation to be of any use.
“We could be the most ethical and honest media platform in the world, but if the audience considers fake news, disinformation, and biased reporting on the same level as a factual and well-sourced article, we have issues…consumers need to have the tools and media literacy to evaluate the information they receive, there needs to be a big focus on providing people with information on how to differentiate between reliable news and fake news.”
The panelists also discussed how self-regulation platforms in other WB countries have worked. Violeta from Kosovo explained that lack of transparency of ownership and a vast number of online portals leads to issues there. In BiH, hate speech was an issue for journalists, particularly in the comments section of news items on social media.
Marina explained how in North Macedonia, the self-regulation mechanisms are working well and hundreds of media platforms have signed up to take part. While challenges still remain, there seems to be a will from the media sector to make things better.
Koloreto and Klodiana spoke about the Albanian government’s plan to pass the anti-defamation law which would essentially muzzle online media under the threat of crippling fines. It was agreed that it posed a chilling threat to media freedom in the country and that the government should adopt a “hands-off” approach and seek to decriminalize defamation, instead of imposing new laws.
Those in attendance agreed that social media comments on news platform sites should be moderated but only in cases where the law was being broken or in situations where homophobic, sexist, and racist language was being used. Otherwise, there is a risk that platforms could censor the voices of valid critics.
There are still some sessions to take place today, you can register for them here.
