Albania Parliament’s Race to Fill Media Board Causes Alarm

Albania's parliament on Monday announced vacancies for four positions on the board of the country's Audio-visual Media Authority, AMA, without waiting for the new parliament elected in the April 25 elections to give its view, prompting concerns about the creation of a one-sided board supportive of Edi Rama's ruling Socialists.

The decision follows the election of four members of the board of Albania's public broadcaster, two of whom have a clear political affiliation.

Both boards should by law be politically independent, but their members in practice are widely seen as representatives of the parties who propose them in parliament.

Moreover, the current parliamentary opposition bench comprises a number of MPs who have meanwhile gone over to the government side, causing concern that the new boards will be totally dominated by Socialist Party supporters.

Koloreto Cukalli, head of the Albania Media Council, an NGO based in Tirana, said it looked like a power grab by the Socialists that could damage the credibility of the AMA for years.

"Such institutions should be independent and not, as they have been till now, cross-party boards," Cukalli said, citing an opinion of the Venice Commission. "If the current parliament elects all of them [the board members], the AMA's reputation will suffer even more," he added.

Elvin Luku, head of Medialook, a think tank based in Tirana, added that the current parliament lacked the credibility to elect the new board members, and should leave the task to September, when the new parliament meets.

"The election of the board members of the public broadcaster by the current parliament poses concerns in terms of political independence," Luku told BIRN.

"We already have a problem with...