Albanian Media Institute - Instituti Shqiptar i Medias

REPORTING DIVERSITY PROJECT: TRAINING OF ALBANIAN JOURNALISTS IN DIVERSITY ISSUES

People experience diversity in many ways: race, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, income/wealth, educational background, and so on. Journalists and media organizations hold a unique power to shape our experience of diversity. Through their actions, they can help each and every group in society gain visibility and be heard. They can strengthen or weaken stereotypes by providing multidimensional or simplistic representations of different ethnic, racial and religious communities. They can foster social tensions and conflicts - or define areas of common ground.
But all too often, the media exacerbate misunderstanding and division among different groups. The transition period was filled with examples of the media being used to divide communities against themselves, stir hatreds against different minority groups, and directly promote intolerance.
In the last years, the media organizations have promoted the concept of Reporting Diversity, according to which, as long as we live in a diverse world, it is media’s duty to reflect this diversity, without neglecting the marginalized or underrepresented groups.
With this in mind, a training module has been established, which consists of training in the following topics:
-What is Reporting Diversity?
-Stereotypes. Language
-How to report diversity?
-New media and diversity.

This project is supported by the US Embassy.

MEDIA’S ROLE IN DECREASING DISCRIMINATION

The need to improve reporting on minorities and on diversity in Albania lies at the root of this project. The Constitution of Albania and, in general, the Albanian legislation guarantees fundamental human rights and freedoms, including minorities. In practice there is no systematic attempt by the state to curb fundamental human rights and freedoms, nor is there a systematic effort to ensure them.
At the same time, although there has been progress in terms of legal regulation vis-a-vis minorities and human rights in general, there are no long-term educational programs or any kind of specialization for journalists dealing with minority groups’ issues and ways of reporting on diversity. Also, there is a lack of cooperation between media and other sectors in terms of exchanging of information and expertise.
The target group affected by the problem consists mainly of the media outlets themselves (mainstream and local media), the reporters, minorities, and the community and general public as a whole.
The long-term objective of the project is:
To improve media coverage and professional and ethical reporting on marginalized groups in Albanian media.
The project that consists of these two components:

The organization of four training courses regarding accurate and ethical reporting on diversity and minorities.
Drafting a policy paper on reporting diversity and organization of a roundtable with stakeholders to discuss media reporting on diversity.

This project is supported by the Civil Rights Defenders.

MEDIA AS AN INSTRUMENT SERVING THE PUBLIC

In every democratic society, the citizens exercise insight and control into the activity of public administration, guaranteeing thereby the standards of governance. In this aspect the media plays a crucial role, serving very often as an intermediary between the government and the citizens. On one hand, the media informs the citizens on the government’s activity, and on the other hand, it discusses the problems and the concerns of the citizens.
Unfortunately, the performance of the Albanian media as an intermediary is not very satisfactory. Even though the main problems facing the current Albanian society are rural, the Albanian media remains urban. It fails to duly reflect the concerns of the citizens and to enable them to engage in governance. Even when dealing with rural problems, the approach and perspective of the media remain urban.
On the other hand, even though Albanians are among the most avid media consumers in the region, their knowledge on functioning of media and the keys needed to use and read media is quite low. All studies on media and communication culture widely recognize the importance of media literacy in a democracy, particularly in an age when consumers are hit by daily avalanche of news stories, advertisements, blogs, videos, and other media. Citizens are faced with the challenge of differentiating between reliable, quality, unbiased information sources and those that are biased, corrupted, or unprofessional.
The paradox of this situation is that while both traditional and new media have become increasingly important and pervasive to people, the public’s ability to critically assess information remains limited and overwhelmed by media products.
The main aim of the project is to foster a deeper understanding of the media role and a greater participation in the public debate in the media from citizens, in the public interest.
More specifically, the activities of the project are divided in two components:

Media and citizens
Media literacy as a tool for citizens in the public interest

This project is supported by the Open Society Foundation Albania.

MEDIA TALKS AND DOCUMENTARY SCREENINGS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND JOURNALISM

This project consists in screening of documentary movies related to journalism and freedom of expression and in the organization of media talks on relevant contemporary topics. This is a project that is being organized in other countries in the world, by similar centres, under the coordination of Frontline Club, London. This project also aims to build a network between like-minded centres and groups, to disseminate groundbreaking documentaries and promote critical debate, as well as create and distribute content.
The selection of the eight documentary movies is made in order to raise awareness on various problems related to freedom of expression and journalism in different parts of the world. Each screening is followed by a debate. In addition to screenings, the project envisages the organization of two media talks. The format of these talks is tailored to the interests and relevance for Albanian media, journalists, media researchers, and academics.
This project is supported by Frontline Club.

REPORTING ON INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

When reading the Albanian newspapers, or following the TV programs, it is remarkable than the interest in covering international issues is less than satisfactory. When the Albanian media covers such issues, their coverage remains superficial and unprofessional.
The proposed project aims to enhance the professional level of journalists covering international issues and improve information of the public on foreign affairs. For this purpose, a series of eight one-day seminars will be organized. The seminars will seek to enable Albanian journalists to comprehend and report on the current world affairs, the power relationship in the international arena, the neighbouring countries, etc. The seminars will focus on reporting countries, regions, institutions, as well as on reporting the main international developments and processes.
The lectures and trainers of these seminars will be experts on international affairs, referents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representatives of international organizations present in Albania, etc.
The seminars will have a double aim: on one side they will seek to inform the journalists on the latest international developments and on the other side they will train the journalists in the basic methods of reporting international issues. In other words, the seminars will be of an informative and in the mean time educational character.
This project is supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

MONITORING ACCESSIBILITY INDEX OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

Both journalists and citizens have often reported on unwillingness or delay of public officials to provide information. This is due both to a culture of openness and accountability that has yet to take root in the public administration, as well as to a newly emerging awareness of the active role the citizens must have in a democratic society. As a result, the Law On Access to Information, crucial for government accountability, is often neglected and its implementation has been slow.

Although public administration is often accused of being closed to the media and the public, there is little research and monitoring in this matter. For the purposes of evaluating the level of transparency and accountability of the public administration, an empirical research on this matter would be helpful. The research will aim to point out the main deficiencies of public administration in terms of accountability and transparency, as well as indicate areas that might be addressed in the future in this regard.

The Accessibility Index of Public Institutions (Research-Survey) will determine the proper needs and directions where the implementation of the law needs improvement. The research will be a combination of comparative legal analysis and empirical research on the degree of implementation of the law on access to information. The empirical research will also be an indicator of how accessible and accountable is public administration vis-à-vis citizens. This research will be published and the findings will be discussed in a roundtable.

This project is supported by the World Bank and British Council.

NEW AND SOCIAL MEDIA AND THEIR IMPACT ON JOURNALISM

The emergence of new technologies has revolutionized the media development and is radically changing the profession of journalist. E-mail culture and Facebook fashion are rapidly spreading around the country. In this context, technology is slowly paving the way for citizen journalism, an area that has no regulation and is a subject of debate all over the world on its potential influence on public debate and media development. Existing regulations, laws, statutes, or codes of conduct, are not always relevant or possible to implement to the new media platforms, even though the main professional principles always apply.
While Internet, new media, and new technologies have certainly provided more opportunities for freedom of expression, for civic journalism, and for enhancement of democracy in general, this freedom also has given rise to new concerns, such as spreading of gossip, ill-based accusations, undue criticism, and in more extreme cases, to hate speech and nationalistic rhetoric. The rise of blogosphere and social media lend more opportunities for special groups and/or interests to be heard. In many ways, media professionals and citizens or amateurs, can both claim their space in the public debate. In this context, professionalism may give way to amateurism, with new concerns on ethical issues and new media.
Apart from the issues that traditional media face in terms of ethical dilemmas, the media professionals and the public also have to face the impact of new media and new technologies, which are changing several aspects of their profession. Although the progress in the area of Internet media has been slower compared to traditional media in the country, the influence of Internet and new information technologies has rapidly transformed the media scene in Albania. Most of Albanian newspapers have their online versions. The number of current online readers significantly exceeds the number of buyers of print newspapers. The main television stations also broadcast in Internet.The overall goal of the project is to strengthen Albanian media conduct and debate on its uses of new media, social media, and technologies.

The Project activities consist in:

A Policy Forum on Social Media in Albania
Three training courses on New Media, Social Media and Ethics

This project is supported by the Austrian Development Agency.

IMPROVING MEDIA PROFESSIONAL SKILLS IN COVERAGE OF LOCAL ELECTIONS

Albania’s latest elections were held on 28 June 2009. While citing a failure to ‘fully realize Albania’s potential to adhere to the highest standards for democratic elections,’ the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) suggested that ‘tangible progress’ had been made. Despite these advances, developments prior to and immediately following the elections have continued to cast doubt within international circles about Albania’s ability to meet internationally recognized democratic standards.

The 2009 elections were also a test for media professionalism, given the tremendous significance these elections had for Albania. These were also a low point for the Albanian media, who failed to report on elections from the public angle and merely served as loudspeaker of the political parties running for power. In addition to the bias shown by the monitored broadcasters in both quantitative and qualitative terms, a significant lack of editorial independence was noted, according to the OSCE/ODIHR report. Campaign coverage was largely reduced to broadcasting footage and commentary produced and provided by political parties themselves. Such control over editorial policies by political parties, at times disguised as the freedom and right of the program director to choose whom to invite to a broadcaster’s programs, resulted in the absence of voices and opinions which could have been considered critical or inconvenient to a given media outlet’s political allegiance, the report concluded.

For this reason, the coming local elections constitute an important test regarding the progress of Albanian state, institutions, and media in this aspect. These elections are a test not only for the political parties but also for all of Albanians. They are also an important test for the media.

The objectives of this project will be to improve ethical standards of the Albanian media during elections and to raise awareness among Albanian media on legal framework governing media conduct during elections.

Project consists in organizing two training courses with journalists from electronic and print media. 40 journalists will be trained.

This project is supported by the Council of Europe.

PROMOTING DIVERSITY, MAPING PERCEPTIONS AND OPENING DIALOGUE ON CIVILIZATION ISSUES

There is a significant lack of information in Albania concerning the debate that revolves around the issues of relations between different civilizations, religions and cultures. This shortcoming becomes all the more apparent when it comes to the opinions of contemporary non-Western authors, and even in the case of authors from the Balkan region. Albania is a secular country, but it has a population that has traditionally been divided into three religions (Muslim, Orthodox Christian and Catholic) and four faiths (the Muslims being divided into Sunni Muslims and Bektashi Muslims). However, up to date there have been very few serious discussions into such issues as the relations between religion and secularism, the recent global developments that concern the re-emergence of religion as a factor of political mobilization, the relations between religion and nationalism or even on the phenomenon of terrorism. A vacuum exists that becomes all the more obvious when it comes to publications concerning these areas.
The collapse of Communism and the consequent opening of the country to the outside world set in motion a series of complex transformation processes. But, be that as it may, fifty years of isolation cut Albania off from the international trends, standards and developments and the negative effects of this long isolation are still present.
The main project objectives are:

To contribute to fill in the existing lack of information concerning the debate that revolves around the issues of relations between different civilizations, religions and cultures.
To encourage critical thinking and the culture of debate and tolerance.
To serve as an instrument for the integration of the Albanian culture into European and global trends.
To create a socializing framework for motivating intellectuals in general, especially the young ones, to think about and discuss about problems which might soon affect their life.

The project consists of the following components/activities, which are closely linked and in function of each other.

The publication of a series of brochures (Dialogue) and some basic books on Civilizations.
Online publication and establishment of website on Civilization Issues

3. Debates at Universities on Civilizations Issues
4. Organization of TV Talk Shows on Civilization Issues
5. Organization of one Essay Competition with High School Students.
6. Documentary on religious co-existence in Albania
7. Translation and projection of the two documentaries of the series of the Alliance of Civilizations
This project is implemented in cooperation with the Institute of Dialogue and Communication and is supported by UNESCO.

IMPROVING MEDIA PROFESSIONAL SKILLS IN COVERAGE OF LOCAL ELECTIONS

The 2009 elections were also a test for media professionalism, given the tremendous significance these elections had for Albania. These were also a low point for the Albanian media, who failed to report on elections from the public angle and merely served as loudspeaker of the political parties running for power. In addition to the bias shown by the monitored broadcasters in both quantitative and qualitative terms, a significant lack of editorial independence was noted, according to the OSCE/ODIHR report. Campaign coverage was largely reduced to broadcasting footage and commentary produced and provided by political parties themselves. Such control over editorial policies by political parties, at times disguised as the freedom and right of the program director to choose whom to invite to a broadcaster’s programs, resulted in the absence of voices and opinions which could have been considered critical or inconvenient to a given media outlet’s political allegiance, the report concluded.

For this reason, increased professionalism in the coming local elections will be crucial to media development and accurate informing of the public.
The objectives of this project will be:

To improve ethical standards of the Albanian media during elections.
To raise awareness among Albanian media on legal framework governing media conduct during elections.

Project consists in organizing two training courses with journalists from electronic and print media, where 30 journalists will be trained. These training courses will aim at improving journalists’ awareness and skills on both legal and ethical aspects of covering elections. The courses will involve journalists from main media outlets.

This project is supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Albania.