According to legislation approved yesterday evening in Parliament, national, local, and digital television channels will be forced to transmit political propaganda for all parties participating in the June 25 elections free of charge.
The amendment to the Law on Audiovisual media were approved with 118 votes in favor and 2 against. All television channels, whether public or private will now have to schedule the following time slots for political propaganda:
- For the two largest political parties, PS and PD: 90 minutes of advertisement each;
- For other parties currently in Parliament, LSI, PDIU, PR, and PDK: 45 minutes of advertisement each;
- For all other parties participating in the elections: 10 minutes each.
The expenses made by television stations to transmit the party advertisements will be fully deductible for tax purposes. Any party that buys additional media time for political advertising purposes will be punished with a fine of 3–8 million lekë.
The correct implementation of the law by both the political parties and the media will be monitored by the Media Monitoring Board (BMM).
