The Audiovisual Media Authority has fulfilled one of the obligations of the integration process: ensuring ownership transparency of audiovisual entities and accessibility to this transparency. Following the approval of the regulation “On the criteria and procedures for reviewing changes in the ownership structure and the data transparency related to the ownership of AVMSPs” in April of this year, audio and audiovisual media in the country, whose activities are regulated by the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA), have been required to declare their beneficial owners.
This step, taken to further regulate the audiovisual media market and fulfill obligations stemming from the integration process, this Regulation that was drafted after the transposition of the 2018 Directive and has introduced several innovations. These include AMA’s review of changes in ownership structure within the same legal entity (AVMSP) that do not lead to the transfer or assignment of rights derived from licenses or authorizations; reviewing of the changes in ownership structure between private legal entities in cases of entering civil legal relations that result in the transfer or assignment of rights stemming from licenses or authorizations; and the declaration of information on the ownership structure of the AVMSP-s that are a licensed or authorized legal entity, including direct and indirect beneficial owners, etc.
Beyond the legal framework, the ownership transparency structure of licensed/authorized entities or individuals and the declaration of the beneficial owner of these entities engaged in audio and audiovisual activities in the Republic of Albania is also presented graphically on the official AMA website at https://ama.gov.al//baza-e-te-dhenave-struktura-pronesore-e-oshma.
In doing so, Albania has fulfilled one of the key obligations of the integration process: ensuring accessibility of the audiovisual entity ownership transparency.
