TIRANA, Nov. 12 – Faced with a massive domestic and international backlash, Albania’s government has withdrawn a proposal to amend the country’s criminal code to make defamation against high officials a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison.
A government spokesperson indicated the withdrawal would be temporary as legal experts work on the language of the amendment to target criminal charges for slander for political representatives, not charges of libel in places like media coverage.
The Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Edi Rama proposed to reintroduce into the criminal code a concept that was removed in 2012 under international pressure and with a rare bipartisan blessing of the Socialists, then in opposition, and the Democrats, then in power.
The government’s proposal quickly came under fire from the media and free speech activists as a step backward and a violation of the best OSCE and UN recommendations on how to deal with libel (media defamation) and slander (public defamation).
Members of parliament, including from within the Socialist-led ruling coalition, also said they would vote against the changes. The country’s president and ombudsman send messages against the proposal.
Albanians are very sensitive to laws that send people to prison for speech and media offenses due to the country’s bitter communist past.
The proposed chances came at a time when Prime Minister Rama and his government have come under heavy attacks by opposition representatives and the media over a series of alleged wrongdoings.
The prime minister said Thursday the criminalization of defamation was not targeted at the media but rather political representatives. A cabinet minister later told the media the proposal would be withdrawn to clarify the language. Such language “will request criminalization of slander when accusations are made by elected politicians and representatives of parliamentary parties,” Rama said.
He added, “There is no connection between criminalizing defamation and the press.”
“It is time for this society to face up to the culture of defamation. The people don’t elect and don’t pay us to slander. The amendment will reflect this goal expressed by me for a long time. I am sorry that it has opened the way for a big misunderstanding,” Rama wrote on Facebook.
Rama had previously sued two MPs from the opposition Democratic Party in civil court under Albania’s current legislation, which allows for civil penalties to be levied if the court finds the accusers of being guilty of malicious defamation. The two MPs in the case had accused the prime minister of corruption.
The proposed changes became part of a larger media backlash against the prime minister, after Rama told journalists at a press conference earlier in the week that media outlets cannot act like “untouchables,” adding some critical journalists were part of a “media swamp.”
Civil society representatives also expressed concern that the legislative changes to criminalize defamation had been proposed in a stealthy way without being first discussed in length in a public format with civil society actors and international experts.
“This is certainly a very negative development in the area of freedom of expression. The amendment extends special protection to high officials, at a time when they should be more open to public scrutiny and criticism,” noted a legal opinion by the Albanian Media Institute and the Open Society Foundation, two organizations that led efforts for the successful defamation reform three years ago.
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović also expressed concern about the draft amendments and called on members of the Albanian parliament to reject the bill which would establish imprisonment as a penalty for libel against public figures.
“Public bodies and officials should not enjoy additional protection from critical speech, on the contrary they should tolerate a larger degree of criticism than ordinary citizens,” Mijatović said. “Criminal sanctions for libel or defamation are excessive and disproportionate. They should be replaced by effective and appropriate civil or administrative law remedies.”
Eighty-four votes out of 140, a qualified majority, are needed to make changes to the criminal code.
