AMA organizes a round table with the Media Services Provides (MSP) of Shkodra and Lezha districts
On Thursday, June 14, 2018, in the city of Shkodra, the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) organized a roaund table on “Respecting the standard of Albanian language in audiovisual broadcasts”. At this roundtable, all Media Service Providers (MPS) of Shkodra and Lezha districts were invited.
In the opening speech Mr. Sami Nezaj, Deputy Chairman of AMA, emphasized the purpose and intentions of organizing this roundtable; the importance of the Albanian literary language in the linguistic and cultural formation of young ages as well as the objectives and the role of AMA to respect the standard of spoken and written Albanian in the audio and audiovisual media.
During this roundtable, the Head of Content and Analysis Sector, of the Program Directory in AMA, Mr. Zimo Krutaj, presented a summary report on the experience and results of monitoring national television broadcasts and some Tirana TV news broadcasts. Illustrative and problematic examples were presented such as occurrences and major cases of deviations from the Albanian language norms, syntax errors and unnecessary use of foreign words founded in the audiovisual programs of national television as well as spelling errors in the subtitles of television news.
Attendees at the table, representatives of the local MSP of Shkodra, Lezha and Malësi e Madhe, brought their experiences and assessed the necessity of implementing the literary standard of Albanian in the programs they broadcast. They also stressed the difficulties encountered in this regard, due to the lack of linguistic training of journalists and the lack of editors and correctors in their small newsrooms. There were also issues of communication ethics on the screen and in the microphone as well as professional standards.
The panel concluded that for the respect of Albanian language literary standard in audiovisual broadcasts and also raising the awarnes of operators and public opinion, it should be thought of concrete sanctions, either through the existing provisions in the Media Law and the AMA Transmission Code, or through making new amendments to the existing legislation.
This round table was held after the meeting helded in AMA on April 17th, 2018, with the same theme. For AMA, it is of great importance to develop these discussion tables for rigorous observance of spoken and written Albanian standard in audiovisual content. AMA has therefore planned to continue sensitizing round tables for the use of the Albanian language even in two other major districts in the south and southeast of the country.
