Media’s role during elections

TIRANA, Feb. 19 – The media was generally considered to have played a balanced role during the elections. In the first post-election report of the international observers it was highly evaluated for its role. “Media provided a balanced coverage of the campaign and voters were able to make informed choices among a number of alternatives. However, the tone of the campaign deteriorated in the last week, focusing on personalized attacks, and a few violent incidents were noted,” said the report. Albania has a pluralistic media environment, with both public and private broadcasters and a wide variety of print media. Public television and radio respected their legal obligation to offer free airtime to all political parties registered for the elections. Debates were televised regularly, both on public TV and a number of local broadcasters, providing candidates with a forum to exchange views. In general, voters were provided with extensive election-related information; yet the media mainly focused on the two largest parties, with smaller parties receiving less coverage than their legal entitlement. The Electoral Code regulates the media coverage of the campaign. Public and private broadcasters are required to cover parties’ campaigns according to their relative strength in the Parliament. Compliance is overseen by the CEC’s Media Monitoring Board (MMB). Despite a delay in launching its monitoring effort, both at the national and local level, as well as problems with monitors and equipment in a number of regions, the MMB were able to fulfill its mandate. Based on the MMB’s reports, the CEC ordered a number of media to “correct” imbalances in their coverage. However, the CEC rejected two requests for compensation from smaller parties (DAP and SDP), although the MMB monitoring showed that such claims appeared to have been grounded. The OSCE/ODIHR EOM monitored the main broadcast and print media outlets2, assessing the time and space allocated to candidates and parties running for the elections, as well as the tone of the coverage. During the official campaign period, TVSH allocated 28 per cent of its political and election prime-time news coverage to the DP, mostly positive or neutral in tone. The SP received 29 per cent, also mainly positive or neutral. The coverage of the two main parties by private broadcasters TV Arb쳩a, Top Channel, Vizion + and News24 was similar to that of TVSH. TV Klan adopted a different approach, giving the SP 28 per cent of coverage, and the DP 21 per cent. The broadcaster often presented state officials as government representatives, even when they were participating in campaign events. TV Klan allocated some 23 per cent of its political coverage to the Government, more than any other outlet monitored.