Albanian Broadcaster Strives for Neutral Stance in Election

Albania's Public Broadcaster, RTSH, has vowed to maintain political balance in its reporting of the election campaign, raising hopes among media experts that the standard of information might change for good.

On Tuesday, the general director of RTSH, Thoma Gellci, suspended the director of the broadcaster's branch in Gjirokastra, following reports of unbalanced reporting against the opposition parties.

The electoral code demands balanced reporting on the part of broadcasters during campaigns and the country's media monitoring board had sent a proposal to the Central Election Commission to fine television stations that do not balance the time they award to different political options.

On May 23, RTSH significantly decided to not transmit any campaign footage coming from the political parties themselves in news editions, pledging to cover all such activities with its own journalists.

"Putting such footage in news editions violates ... the law that demands a clear division between advertisements and information and a halt to hidden advertising," an announcement read.

Iris Luarasi, a lecturer in journalism at Tirana University, told BIRN that the suspension of the local TV director was something to be welcomed.

"This also might be strategically good PR for RTSH," Luarasi said, noting also "the improvement to the content" of most of its news programmes.

However, Luarasi emphasised that the public broadcaster still has only limited audience, adding that restoring its public image would take time and effort.

"Time is needed for the public television to regain its audience, but with effort and goodwill, the process could be accelerated," she suggested.

RTSH has long been seen as a mouthpiece of various governments...