Before the Members of the Albanian Parliament, AMA’s Chair, Ms. Armela Krasniqi, presented several of the institution’s key priorities for 2024. Among the first achievements she highlighted were the fulfilment of quality and the effectiveness of AMA’s monitoring and regulatory role, achieved thanks to the Authority’s full independence in exercising its duties. “This objective has been achieved thanks to the Authority’s functioning as a fully independent body in carrying out its responsibilities in accordance with legal provisions. I emphasize this point, supported by the fact that the institution is led and its decisions are made by a Board composed entirely of members proposed by civil society and approved by Parliament, despite initial claims made by various actors, including civil society itself”, she stated. “During my leadership of the institution, approximately 500 decisions have been adopted, over 60% of which were approved unanimously through the voting process. This demonstrates that the Board has acted solely in accordance with the law. Among these decisions are 9 decisions to open competitions for the use of frequencies, 123 decisions granting, authorizing, or renewing licenses and 11 decisions concerning electoral campaigns monitoring, whether local, general, or partial elections in different municipalities across the country. Included among these 500 decisions are also 24 various bylaws and 9 license/authorization revocations, etc. Across this wide range of decisions, not a single one has been contested, neither by civil society, nor by the industry itself, nor by political parties, as having been influenced by political considerations”- added AMA’s Chair before the Members of Parliament.
Likewise, legal improvements and alignment with EU standards remain a priority for the institution she leads. She highlighted the work carried out on legal regulations, such as the adoption of the Regulation “On the criteria and procedures for reviewing changes in ownership structures and data transparency related to the audiovisual media service providers ownership”. “This important bylaw specifically addresses ownership structures transparency and the declaration of other data related to licenses/authorizations of audiovisual media service providers, achieving an initial alignment of the Regulation with the European Media Freedom Act provisions as well as transposing EU Directive 2018/1808,” she stated. Currently, AMA has prepared and graphically presented on its official website, the ownership structure transparency of companies/individuals holding a license or authorization issued by AMA. It has also made public the direct or indirect beneficial owners of entities operating audio and audiovisual activities in the Republic of Albania. The database model was selected based on European regulatory practices, specifically inspired by the Portuguese regulator ERC, supported by the MoU signed between the two institutions.
“We’re working on new legal adaptations in compliance with two very important acts, the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and the European Digital Services Act (DSA),” said Ms. Krasniqi. She explained that the legal framework has been improved to include Video Sharing Platforms, aiming to regulate the general conditions for user-generated audiovisual content on such platforms. Cooperation with the TikTok platform, resulting in the removal of hundreds of harmful content published there, as well as hundreds of pirated audiovisual products.
AMA’s Chair Ms. Krasniqi presented figures outlining the work undertaken to ensure the legality of the audio and audiovisual market, as follows:
349 complaints handled by the Council of Complaints
393 inspections of audiovisual media service providers
Shutdown of 20 servers broadcasting audiovisual content without rights
Identification and referral to the electronic communications regulator for action against 346 online pages selling unauthorized audiovisual products
Verification of 241 cases of audio/audiovisual broadcasts for compliance with legal requirements
Promotion of the Audience Measurement process, leading to the establishment of the Joint Industry Committee
Earlier, AMA’s Chair Ms. Krasniqi had reported before the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Public Information Means.
