USAID Media Monitoring Program releases report

TIRANA, June 1 – A USAID-funded project that monitors media coverage of the 2009 Albanian parliamentary elections released its weekly report online at www.mcmonitoring.org.
Authored by Delta Publicity, a local communications agency, in partnership with MC Monitoring, a local media monitoring service, the report summarizes findings from a monitoring effort that encompasses TV newscasts on 6 channels between 12:00 and 24:00 as well as 4 major daily newspapers over the period May 15-May 22, 2009. Additional reports will be released every week throughout the election period.
The project reports that major coalitions and parties receive unequal television coverage.
Vizion Plus TV was the only major TV station in the country that provided equal air time to all political sides, according to the report.
According to the report, the national broadcaster TV Klan and public television TVSH allocated more airtime to the ruling Democratic Party, PD, and its allies in the “Alliance for Change” coalition.
The other private national broadcaster, Top Channel, and local stations Koha TV and News 24, allocated more minutes to the Socialist Party, PS, and its allies in the “Union for Change” coalition.
Major coalitions and parties received biased coverage from the monitored TV stations, excluding Koha TV, which offered balanced coverage on all subjects.
TV Klan and TVSH showed bias in favor of right-wing parties, members of the “Alliance for Change” coalition, and specifically the PD and Republican Party.
Top Channel and News 24 showed bias in favor of PS and its allies in the “Union for Change” coalition.
Smaller coalition member parties received little or no coverage, the report concluded.
The report said that coverage of the 2009 election contains political bias. Findings were based upon a monitoring method that uses quantitative analysis (air time or column space devoted to political parties and coalitions) and qualitative analysis (the context and tone of coverage, whether positive, negative or neutral).