Government cuts off Top Channel

TIRANA, May 8 – The National Council of Radio and Television (KKRT) has cut the broadcast signal of four private television stations in the northern Shkodra area.
The four stations were not licensed to broadcast throughout the country, as they only held a license as local television stations. That was the reason KKRT officials gave when they went to the mountain of Tarabosh in Shkodra to cut the signal of Top Channel, Vizion +, TV Koha and Telesport and leave the entire area without these stations.
KKRT is an institution controlled by the government. It has argued that the decision to cut the broadcast signals was taken on the basis that the affected television companies are not legally national television outlets. This has raised the debate on why KKRT has not provided national licenses since these companies had submitted normal licensing requests three years ago and fulfilled the legal criteria to have receive permits to broadcast.
KKRT head Ledi Bjanku, a former intern on the staff of Parliament head Jozefina Topalli, has not responded to these concerns. Opposition politicians allege Bjanku is favoring the interests of other licensed media.
The four stations protested against the move claiming it a politically motivated, though they have no legal basis for their protest. The opposition said that the KKRT has left free only those stations that are pro-government. Additionally, the opposition said they would ask that all KKRT members be dismissed if there would be no reinstatement of the television signals in northern Albania. The KKRT actions sparked debate in the parliament where opposition parliamentarians protested against the move.
Gilman Bakalli, an MP who belonged to the ruling Democratic Party but left last week to become independent, also protested saying that closing the television stations was the same type of act as committed by the former communist regime which would not allow foreign television signals to reach Albania.
Other Coalition members, such as Nikolle Lesi of the Christian Democrats, also opposed the move. Media organizations, as well as human rights groups, have protested the move and described it as a strictly political action.
The Albania media have been in open conflict with the government since a draft law on allowing digital broadcasting was proposed. Top Channel, the largest private media outlet in the country, has been in open opposition to Sali Berisha’s government.
Top Channel transmits to audiences of Albanians abroad in Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece and other countries with large Albanian immigrant communities. The popularity of Top Channel has been a concern to the administration, given the outspoken criticism of the government by Top Channel commentators.
An expert of Albanian media argues that the decision to cut the signal in some areas has been made in order to make the public dependent upon news from the National TV, which holds a much more pro-government view of the ruling administration.