Rights Groups Criticise Albanian PM's Push to 'Discipline' Media

The European Federation of Journalists, European Centre for Press & Media Freedom, PEN International and Reporters Without Borders criticised on Wednesday new restrictive laws on online media in Albania.

The laws were proposed by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama as part of his drive against "defamation".

In a joint letter sent to Rama, the groups claim that the PM's initiative is "against best practices and goes against the recommendations of the OSCE, which raises our deepest concern."

It adds that if parliament passes the current draft laws, "they will seriously impair free flow of information and will have chilling effect in online media and restrict the Albanian citizens' right to access information."

In early December, the Albanian Government proposed changes in two laws foreseeing the registration of online media and the policing of news content for a variety of reasons, including "biased" news, news that "damages public morale" and "publications that can incite penal offences".

Failure to uphold the law would result in fines of up to 1 million leks [8,000 euros] and even closure of websites.

After the changes were presented at a public hearing on Monday in Tirana, media experts and organisations expressed concerns over possible violations of the constitution, the risk of censorship and a possible chilling effect on the freedom of expression online.

In Wednesday's letter, the groups also called on Rama "to immediately drop the initiative to amend the two draft laws in question and to involve journalists, civil society organisations, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the European Union and Council of Europe in any initiative concerning the right to freedom of expression of media and...