War for Channels

AIM Tirana, August 31, 2000

Along with the election campaign for local administration, a struggle for channels is also at its height in Albania among electronic media which compete for permits which would transform numerous radio and TV stations from illegal such as they are now into privately-owned ones registered pursuant the law.

About 120 applications for issuing permits have been handed in for radio and TV stations which are for months lying on the tables of the National Radio and Television Committee in expectation of a difficult decision, as much political as it is professional. Almost 20 television stations have aspirations to be issued permits and become national television stations, and in Albania, due to the limited number of channels, there can be only two of them.

National Radio and Television Committee (KKRT) made its decision public according to which, after elimination of those which did not meet the requirements prescribed by law, there remained four TV stations in the competition: TV Klan, TV Arberia, TV Shijak and Telenorba Shquiptare. Other television stations will be issued permits for local broadcasting or rather, they will have the right to send their signals to four districts at the most. Two months ago TV Klan got a permit from OSCE in Kosovo to broadcast its program in Pristina and surrounding regions.

As it is only natural, those who have remained in the race are satisfied, and the disqualified ones have already started with denials. KKRT was swamped with an avalanche of accusations and attacks to the extent that for almost a week "the licence war" pushed into the background the election struggle for the forthcoming local elections. Unable to convince the stubborn disqualified ones, after suggestion of OSCE office in Tirana, KKRT postponed reaching the final decision on the difficult choice between the four large ones two of which will also have to be disqualified. This decision will be made public only after local elections.

Three years ago, Albania still had only one state Radio-Television station which was controlled by the party in power and which served as an apple of discord in sharp political struggle. After controversial elections in 1996, Berisha and his party became aware that electronic media could not continue to be the monopoly of the government. A group of experts began work on creation of the platform for transforming state TV into public TV. About that time, quite unexpectedly, a private TV channel began broadcasting its program bearing the name of the town where it was "born"- TV Shijak.

Initiated by an ordinary TV mechanic, TV Shijak had very poor equipment and could be watched only in houses close to the centre of the city. Its transmitter installed on the minaret of the mosque, the highest point in the town, did not inspire much hope for its future. However, in autumn 1996 the owner of TV Shijak made a new investment and its signal reached Tirana. What is extremely incredible is that the state did not ban it. This blazed the trail.

In autumn 1996, signals of another three television channels also appeared on TV screens, one of which was TV Vefa, owned by the greatest pyramidal system which would collapse a few months later. TV Vefa was located in a building downtown Tirana and its managers declared that they would soon become a national and moreover a Balkan television station. However, TV Vefa did not manage to do more than broadcast its promo and a few speeches of its boss at the time when the financial pyramidal system was tumbling down burying 350 million dollars of savings of cheated Albanians.

The developments in 1997 in Albania interrupted investments in electronic media. However, when this country was striving to find a way out of chaos, Koha Jone, the greatest and the most trusted newspaper in the country, bought and installed its own radio station. Radio Koha managed to excellently cover the elections on June 26, 1997, definitely proving that state monopoly over information and electronic media was over once and for all.

Albanian law neither permitted nor banned electronic media, so that according to the known principle "That which is not banned is permitted", in only three years their number multiplied incredibly. Not a single city or town in Albania, big or small, was left without its own television and radio station. Only in Tirana the number of TV stations reached the figure of 15.

Unlike several other countries where a legal framework had been created first and only after that it was permitted to found electronic media, their existence was first permitted in Albania in the belief that regulation of the legal framework would be done at a later phase. This had certain advantages but consequences as well.

Television piracy has become fashionable. Films like "Titanic" or "English Patient" were shown on Albanian tv screens at the same time when they were rolling in Western cinemas. A single casette brought from abroad was sufficient for "Titanic" to appear on screens in Tirana.

In autumn 1997, TV Arberia started broadcasting news. At first without an announcer, this news programme soon became the most popular one in the capital. By model of TV A, TV Shijak also started broadcasting information shows, and after it, all the other television stations followed. That was the moment when the press in Albania started losing ground, registering a drastic fall of circulation. The Albanians started spending less money on buying newspapers and spending more time listening to the news on radio or TV.

Although with a delay, Albania managed to pass a very progressive legal framework for electronic media. Albanian law on private and public TV stations is up to all international standards. However, while on the one hand there was no significant criticism or denial of this law, its implementation does not seem to be easy. National Committee for RTV is still incomplete because the opposition has refused to delegate its representative in it. On the other hand, in a country such as Albania where laws belong more in the sphere of theory than practice, it will not be easy to impose rules. It should also be added that three years spent in the style of the Wild West in the media have caused a part of radio and TV bosses to shout slogans on freedom and forget their responsibilities.

AIM Tirana

Blendi FEVZIU