By ALFRED PEZA
Yesterday’s debate in Parliament goes beyond the real essence of the problem of the distribution of the signal emitted by RTSH in plenary sittings and its broadcast by private operators. More than a simple debate regarding a relation between interested operators, here we’re dealing with a clash of cultures. A clash which confronts the communist culture of market relations and a liberal economy. This case may well serve as an opportunity to launch a national debate in order to put an end, once and for all, to transitive mentalities in many other domains. A debate on the residues of the Ottoman and Neo-Ottoman culture, communist and neo-communist culture, in a free and open country, but, a country with a society which still has closed relations. A clash of civilizations and cultures, which is generating phenomena ranging from victims of domestic violence to a deformed relation of the individual with freedom, capitalism, state, government, government, social life in the community and verbal language in social networks. Let us focus on what happened yesterday at the start of the parliamentary plenary session, where private TV networks suspended their live feed, because this is a case which was not born yesterday.
The rules regulating live broadcasts of plenary sitting were approved after 1990, when the first pluralist Parliament convened. At that time, there was only one state owned TV network, Albanian Radio Television, which is now a public network. This rule remained unchanged even after 1997, a period which gave rise to the era of private radio televisions. The demand to broadcast live parliamentary sittings mainly comes from news channels, which fill Thursday’s program with live feeds from parliamentary proceedings, even if they bear no interest whatsoever for the citizens. To avoid an unnecessary state of confusion in the parliament’s hall caused by the presence of the cameras of all TV channels, the most practical solution found throughout the years was to give private operators the signal emitted by RTSH-s van.
According to the director of RTSH, private operators could broadcast these sittings free of charge, if, alongside their logo, they also show the logo of RTSH on their screen. But, operators who do not wish to have RTSH’s logo on their screens, can do this if they pay, and this could serve as an opportunity to reduce RTSH’s financial cost for the operation. Accustomed to obtaining the signal all these years without a logo and without a fee, private channels have showed resistance. With the start of the new parliamentary season, RTSH has once again tried to impose their rule.
As it often happens in Albania, with the media and politics, matters of market economy, ranging from the most technical ones to professional disputes and all sorts of other problems, have a tendency to hide behind the mask of the freedom of media, the right of information and the principles of the universal and constitutional right of the freedom of speech.
The one who immediately wants to take advantage of moments like these is the opposition. Without thinking twice, the Democratic Party and Socialist Movement for Integration gave the alarm yesterday on what they considered as informative censorship and a return in the past.
But when it seems that the situation was going to aggravate, it was PM Rama who attempted to clarify the situation. He said that “time has come to change the way parliament’s TV signal is provided. Up until today, we’re operating as we used to do during the communist regime, although we’re in a democracy. RTSH cannot have the exclusiveness over parliamentary life. As in any other normal country, Parliament must have its own TV, its own service, for all of those who are interested to receive this service”. And this was it!
The clarification of this situation and the solution that was offered solved, as if by magic, a conflict which has lasted several years, avoiding this way not only a war with the wind mills, but also the wastage of human energy and technical expenses of private operators of Tirana. Imagine today, in the time of digital technology, 25 cameras, 25 vehicles, 25 camera operators, 25 journalists who are dispatched every Thursday at the Parliament of Albania. Imagine how much time, people, money and technical means will be saved through a simple investment. The same thing must also be done for other state institutions, starting with the President, Prime Minister and ministries, which do not need to invest in order to broadcast live feeds of press conferences or standard press releases. A simple device which carries images through optic fibers or directly via internet would be enough to save energy and human and technical resources.
This new approach, which many other countries have adopted now, has nothing to do with the will to save money to some owner of private channels. This effort to modernize this relation relates to another obligation. The constitutional right for information, which is the most important one. But this leads us to another topic.
Although TV channels are privately owned, the frequencies that they use to emit their media product are public property. As a result, they have another responsibility. A specific responsibility, different to all other types of private businesses. Owners of TV networks must not only uphold their financial interests, but also the public interests to inform the public and entertain it through quality, professionalism and a wide range of media productions.
Due to a limited pool of ads that Albania has in relation to the need of this market to function normally, the modernization of broadcasts, such as the one of the TV signal emitted by the Parliament of Albania, would help them financially, enabling human and technical resources to be used more efficiently. This solution would also relax internal relations between media operators. The dismantlement of a rusted and old chain of institutional relations in the market, like the one that was addressed yesterday by the Prime Minister in Parliament, is the best example on how to operate with many other issues, problems and other residues. This is the only way to move forward and tackle fresh challenges.
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
