Safe Journalists Researcher in Albania discusses local media role in times of crises
Blerjana Bino, Safe Journalists Researcher in Albania was invited as a panelist at the roundtable on Local Media and Crises in Albania organized by LevizAlbania, a project funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation in Albania, focused on local democracy and implemented by OSFA, CoPlan and Partners Albania.
Ms Bino shared some key findings on the role of media in times of crisis such as the devastating earthquake of November 2019 and the pandemic in 2020 in Albania, supported by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. She also highlighted some of the key trends in terms of the safety of journalists as monitored by the Safe Journalists Network.
PODGORICA, 03.03.2022 – From March 1, commercial and non-profit electronic media can apply for the Competition for the distribution of funds from the Fund for Encouraging Pluralism and Diversity of the Media, the Agency for Electronic Media of Montenegro announced.
A total of just over 460,000 euros will be awarded, and with this announcement, distribution from the Fund for last year is completed.
The Media Law from 2020 introduced a Fund for Encouraging Pluralism and Diversity of the Media, financed by the state budget, and intended for commercial and non-profit electronic and print media, online publications and self-regulatory bodies. The percentage of funds allocated to the Fund is 0.09 percent of the current state budget of Montenegro.
The Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media is in charge of distributing money from the subfund for print media and internet publications, while the Council of the Agency for Electronic Media is in charge of the subfund for commercial and non-profit electronic media.
While the Council only recently published a call for project applications, the Commission of the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media, which decides on the distribution of the budget for print media and online publications, did so in December last year. They supported 32 projects of print media and internet publications, including 12 projects of non-governmental organizations that have their own internet publications. They allocated 309,633 euros, which adds to the total amount of 774,083 euros to finance all media for 2021.
In addition to the time lag in publishing the call, the two sub-funds also drafted different regulations on the scoring of submitted projects.
“The competition will distribute funds from the Fund for Encouraging Pluralism and Diversity of Media Intended for Commercial and Non-Profit Electronic Media for 2021, in the amount of € 464,450.73 through grants to increase the volume, structure and diversity of its own program content dedicated to thematic areas of public interest and € 25,802.82 through grants to cover the operating costs of self-regulatory bodies “, states the invitation of the Agency, which is open until April 5.
In both sub-funds, financing of operational costs of self-regulation in the amount of about 43,000 euros is envisaged.
The Chairman of the Board of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo – AJK, Xhemajl Rexha, today received the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Ambassador Michael Davenport.
At the meeting, they discussed the state of media freedom in the country, the joint projects that are expected to be implemented in recent months, as well as marking 3rd May – World Press Freedom Day.
Ambassador Davenport congratulated AJK for its work so far and expressed his commitment to continue supporting AJK’s activities.
Also present at the meeting were the Executive Director of the AJK, Getoarbë Mulliqi Bojaj, and the Head of the Media Section at the Democratization Department, Dane Koruga, and Dorin Vremis, Special Assistant to the Head of Mission.
The Association of Journalists of Kosovo is concerned about the cyber-attack towards “Buletini Ekonomik”, and “Buletini Newsletter”.
According to the Buletini’s staff: “On 25.02.2022, the two main pages of Buletini Ekonomik on Facebook were attacked. Both sites “Buletini Ekonomik”, and “Buletini Newsletter”, are not in our management. The case was reported last night to the Kosovo Police and has given a statement regarding the attack. ”
AJK condemns this attack and calls upon competent authorities to handle the case with priority so that the perpetrators of this action are brought to justice.
AJK emphasizes the need for an immediate reaction of the competent authorities in order to carry out their work in an unhindered manner.
The Albanian Helsinki Committee held on 25.02.2022 a round table consultation, with representatives of the Parliamentary Commissions for Education and Public Information as well as for Labour, Social Affairs and Health, representatives of foreign embassies in Albania, as well as journalists and organizations of civil society that focus on the protection of their rights.
Blerjana Bino, Safe Journalists Researcher in Albania joined the panel and briefly highlighted some of the challenges related to the safety of journalists in Albania, particularly in terms of digital safety and working conditions, including intimidation and self-censorship.
The panel reflections followed the presentation of the Albanian Helsinki Committee reports: the National Barometer on Media Freedom in Albania for 2020 as well as the Study Report on the work rights of journalists.
This roundtable took place within the framework of the initiative “Strengthening media integrity standards in Albania”, financially supported by the British Embassy Tirana and the East-West Management Institute and implemented by the Albanian Helsinki Committee.
The Association of Journalists of Kosovo – AJK, with the support of the National Democratic Institute – NDI and USAID in Kosovo, within the Journalists Information Integrity Academy, organized the conference Combating Gender-Based Disinformation.
Xhemajl Rexha – Chairman of the AJK Board, raised the need for the appointment of women in decision-making positions in the media in order to fight the misogynistic language more effectively.
“The media are often the source of the spread of misogynistic language, and we as the AJK are constantly engaged in supporting them to denounce this language. In this context, the appointment of more women in managerial and decision-making positions in the media would be very helpful in order for the joint efforts against misogynistic language to be more effective.”
The Ambassador Nancy Soderberg, NDI’s Senior Resident Director for Kosovo, said that misogyny is one of the main challenges of the information environment in Kosovo.
“The media play an important role in combating this phenomenon through gender-sensitive reporting, identifying sexist and offensive language, and providing fair and equal opportunities and representation for all.”
Atifete Jahjaga – President of the Republic of Kosovo during the period 2011 – 2016, stated that the gender-based disinformation is an old problem in our society that has been persistent for many years, and that it should be addressed very seriously by journalists and the media.
“During my term in Office and after, there were more reports and fake news regarding my privacy, the way I looked, my marriage life, and also edited photos of myself, than there were reports about the work I did. I have witnessed this situation for over a decade. What makes this situation even worse is the fact that we are seeing that the same trend exists towards the actual President of the State and other women in politics. The media in Kosovo, and not only them, are unfortunately targeting women who are active in politics and business, thus contributing to stereotypes and gender-based discrimination because, according to them, it is not important what that woman did but how she looks.”
The Panel consisting of journalists, researchers, and representatives of organizations, together with the participating journalists of the Journalists Information Integrity Academy, discussed current media problems related to online misogyny and gender disinformation, as well as for the best practices to mitigate these challenges.
The following are some of the recommendations which derived from the conference: Incluosion other identity indicators in addition to men and women, involving more women in TV debates, undertaking actions based on the current context in Kosovo, to improve the representation and portrayal of women in the media, and the development of methods to proactively identify and minimize sexist language in the media.
Full recommendations will soon be published on the Organization’s social platforms.
Progress in the implementation of media self-regulation, media reforms, security and protection of journalists and media workers were part of the topics discussed yesterday by representatives of AJM and SEMM with the Head of the EU Delegation to the country.
AJM representatives pointed to overdue reforms in the media sector and asked for support from the EU Delegation in Skopje for continuing the processes in the RNM Assembly. AJM reminded of the fact that the Criminal Code, which provides protection for media workers, has been stuck in parliamentary proceedings for eight months, as well as for the crisis with non-election of members in the media regulator and the MRT Council.
Representatives of the SEMM pointed to the increased number of complaints on media unethical reporting and violations of the Code of Ethics. SEMM statistics show that Article 1 of the Journalists’ Code is most often violated, which is related to the accuracy and truthfulness of information, as well as Article 8, which is related to sensationalist information.
The EU Ambassador expressed support for the efforts of the two organizations in improving the situation in the media sphere, and a joint meeting will soon follow to discuss in detail these issues with journalists and relevant parties from the media sector.
PODGORICA, 22.02.2022 – The protection of journalistic sources, even during the new changes in media legislation, which began at the end of last year, provokes various controversies among the representatives of the media and legal community.
While some advocate the complete lifting of restrictions on that freedom, which were introduced by the Media Law in 2020, others believe that the ban should remain, but with a precise determination of the procedure for disclosing sources.
The Media Law, which entered into force in July 2020, for the first time provides for restrictions in the event of threats to territorial integrity, public health and security. However, the procedure for such restrictions is, according to many, vague, with different interpretations, that could be misused.
On this occasion, experts from the Council of Europe sent an opinion to the Government of Montenegro in April last year, emphasizing the importance of specifying the provision in order to prescribe that the prosecutor’s request for disclosure of sources, and in prescribed situations, must be approved by the court.
Lawyer Mirko Boskovic reminds that the issue of protection of journalistic sources is regulated by Article 30 of the Media Law, which guarantees journalists the right not to disclose a journalistic source.
“Namely, a journalist who gets acquainted with information that could indicate the identity of a source of information during the collection, editorial processing, or publication of media content, is not obliged to disclose that source. Protection of confidentiality of journalistic sources is recognized in the Code of Journalists of Montenegro, which among the most important principles of work and activity of journalists, proclaims the principle of protection of sources”, he said.
Photo: PR centar
He says that this right is not absolute: “The cited Article 30 of the Media Law prescribes appropriate restrictions, which means that, under precisely and strictly defined conditions, journalists may be required to disclose sources of information. Namely, a journalist, under the obligation to the public prosecutor, shall disclose the source of the information when necessary to protect the interests of national security, territorial integrity, and health protection. ”
He reminds that such a decision was treated as disputable by the public, especially having in mind the provisions of the previously valid Media Law, which treated the right to protection of a journalistic source as an absolute right, ie did not prescribe the mentioned restrictions.
“It should be emphasized, however, that the right to protection of a journalistic source is an integral part of the right to freedom of expression under Art. 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which is subject to certain restrictions. Therefore, prescribing restrictions on the right to protection of journalistic sources in domestic legislation is not disputable in principle, but the sensitivity and importance of a specific issue should be taken into account, so legal solutions should be as precise and unambiguous as possible, “he said.
Although our legislator in paragraphs 3 and 4 of the mentioned Article 30 of the Law on Media, as he said, prescribes additional guarantees in the form of judicial control of the justification of restricting the right to protection of information sources, in this case, it should be noted that the norms of this article leave a dilemma. The prosecutor, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 2, could order the disclosure of sources of information during the investigation, regardless of the decision or authorization of the court, given its specific role and manner of procedural engagement in the investigation phase.
“In an attempt to answer this question, and with the fact that linguistic interpretation proves insufficient, ie leaves dilemmas, which is certainly not good in terms of a specific issue, other methods of their interpretation must be applied in finding the appropriate meaning of these norms, targeted (teleological) and systematic interpretation, “he said.
Boskovic states that, in any case, when making a decision on hearing journalists on the circumstances of a protected source of information, the court will pay special attention to whether the information is directly related to the specific case, whether the information can be obtained from other sources and whether the legitimate interest in disclosing information on the source of information referred to in paragraph 2 is based on law, prevails over the protection of the source of information.
“Also, in order to strengthen the protection of journalistic sources, Article 30 paragraph 4 of the Law on Media prescribes the possibility of the court to exclude the public during the presentation of information on the source of information and warn persons attending the main trial where the public is excluded. They are obliged to keep as a secret everything they learned during the trial, in which case they will also point out that revealing the secret is a criminal offense “, he said.
The lawyer notes that the restrictions on the right to protection of journalistic sources prescribed in our legislation are fully in line with the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe R (2000) 7 of March 8, 2000, on the right of journalists not to disclose their sources information.
“Out of the possible seven restrictions envisaged by the recommendation, our legislator opted for three of them (protection of national security interests, territorial integrity and health protection), and such a solution is very similar to those existing in most Council of Europe and European Union member states. Of course, only strict adherence to the prescribed rules and criteria in practice will enable the restrictions in each case to be considered justified, so the responsible approach of courts and state prosecutor’s offices to this issue in practice is of special importance, “he said.
The article was created within the service “Know your rights”, which was introduced by the Media Union in April last year with the aim of shedding light on various topics of importance for membership and media workers.
SARAJEVO, February 22, 2022 – The Municipal Court in Sarajevo has confirmed the indictment of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office against Abdulah Hajdarević for the criminal offense of endangering safety.
According to the statement of the Prosecutor’s Office of Canton Sarajevo, at the first hearing the accused pleaded not guilty.
“He is charged that on May 28, 2021, at around 4:15 PM, he tried to enter the premises of “Face” Television without authorization, while Senad Hadžifejzović was preparing emission. The receptionist with whom he was arguing tried to stop him from doing so, but the accused started shouting at her, addressing her with the words: “Why are you pretending crazy, I need to go to Senad Hadžifejzović”. She called a colleague, after which the accused began to behave aggressively, saying loudly that “he will not go out, that he will confront him (Hadžifejzović)”, while grabbing his purse all the time. He was removed from the building by the intervention of security and half an hour later he was seen again in the immediate vicinity of the “Bosmal City Center” building. On the same day, at around 8:30 pm, the accused wrote on his Facebook profile, among other things, that he tried to “fly” into the “Face TV” premises, but failed, and that he would later wait for Senad Hadžifejzović and other employees, under threat of killing them all” – Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
The prosecutor proposed that the court hear eight witnesses, two experts and present more than 40 pieces of material evidence for the main trial.
