One of the key criteria of the Copenhagen Charter, which defines standards for free and fair elections, is the right of citizens to be properly informed about political alternatives before voting. The lack of independent media in Albania, as well as a politics based on insults and not on arguments, were the problems observed by monitors in Sunday’s elections. “The shutdown of TikTok contradicts international standards,” the report says.
By BIRN
The lack of a healthy media environment for diverse information about electoral offers for Albanians, the non-functioning of legal mechanisms that should guarantee the existence of independent media, and the controversial decision of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government to shut down the social network TikTok shortly before the start of the election campaign were some of the problems that compromised democratic standards in Sunday’s elections and brought the most critical report in a long time from the international factor.
The report notes with concern the presence of funding from unidentified sources in several media, the control of advertisements for political reasons, verbal and often physical attacks by political leaders against journalists, and the lack of access of small parties in the media.
Albanians voted on Sunday, May 11 in parliamentary elections, which the ruling party, the Socialist Party, won with a simple majority of votes, while the division of the country into 12 electoral districts gave it the advantage of an almost qualified parliamentary majority — something that is expected to cause further trouble for Albanian democracy due to the possibility of unilateral changes to the rules of the game by Rama in the coming years.
The OSCE/ODIHR report, published on Monday, pointed out abuses of state power and state resources by the ruling party, as well as voter intimidation by the army of patronage workers, as problems that make the elections “not in accordance with international standards,” but a particularly strong criticism in the report concerns the media, the freedom to transmit and receive information, as well as the quality of the information received.
“The independence, diversity, and integrity of news available to voters were eroded by the dependence of the majority of the media on non-transparent funding from political or business interests, which often rely on public contracts,” the report says.
“The concentration of media ownership further undermines the pluralism of news sources, contrary to international standards,” OSCE/ODIHR experts observe.
The media environment of a country must have multiple media with diverse information, including information from political or social actors who do not belong to mainstream currents — something that is actually not found in Albania. The media are not few, if we look at the number of television stations, but the information given in them is not diverse, because it is the same information given across many media at once.
“News reporting is often replaced by materials prepared by government bodies, which undermines editorial integrity. The Media and Information Agency, an agency under the Prime Minister, centralizes and filters the information published by the government and public institutions,” the report says.
“Furthermore, journalists report that their access to government representatives, including the Prime Minister, is shrinking, with the number of press conferences decreasing and journalists at times being prohibited from attending public events, which is contrary to international standards.”
The Albanian government prohibits journalists from conducting independent filming in public events, such as the electoral rallies of Rama and the Socialist Party, where the Prime Minister’s bodyguards and staff physically prevent the use of mobile phones or other video recording tools. This has turned the media “reporting” of the campaign into a giant theater in which citizens can only see what the Prime Minister wants, but on different TV channels and online portals.
“According to most ODIHR interlocutors, the footage from the campaign was provided by political parties. On the television channels monitored by ODIHR, none of these news reports were marked as such, as required by the Electoral Code, and no measures were taken by the Central Election Commission.”
The report notes with concern reports that some of the interviews with election candidates broadcast on various media were in fact paid, something that contradicts the law.
“Footage produced by candidates in the news, as well as paid coverage, is de facto equivalent to political advertising and disadvantages candidates with fewer financial resources,” the report notes.
One of the key problems that seems likely to invalidate Sunday’s elections has to do with the government’s decision to block access to the social network TikTok a few weeks before the elections. The government says it made the decision to fight bullying in schools, as a result of the tragic incident of a teenager’s murder last December, but many believe the ban is connected to the electoral campaign, because TikTok, as a new social media, values content and gives visibility to user-produced material in exchange for revenue, whereas older social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, do not give visibility to content produced by, for example, parliamentary candidates, since they are mature businesses and aim to sell ads.
In short, TikTok gives visibility that Facebook and others do not.
“The decision of the Council of Ministers on March 6 to temporarily block access to TikTok is a broad ban and incompatible with international standards,” the report states.
“In the end, the restrictive media environment and the failure to implement legal requirements in good faith prevented voters from receiving complete, independent, and diverse information about the electoral race,” the report emphasizes.