The Instrumentalisation of Media in Albania

Südosteuropa 60 (2012), H. 1, S. 31-52 Schwerpunkt: MeDIenLAnDSchAFten BLENDI KAJSIU The Instrumentalisation of Media in Albania Abstract. The importance of the media for democracy is at least twofold; they provide a space for public deliberation, and they serve as a watchdog of accountability over the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. This paper argues that the media in Albania fail to perform these two functions due to their ownership and financing structure. The key print media outlets in Albania are owned by private individuals or businesses who use and finance them primarily to promote their own interests. Therefore, to a considerable degree, the media is reduced to functioning as an instrument of those who finance it. In his argument, the author also consid- ers the role of international actors and sponsors. The Albanian setting is contextualized on the basis of other European countries’ media landscapes, as to avoid any stereotypical placement of post-socialist (failed) democratisation. Blendi Kajsiu recently earned a PhD in Ideology and Discourse Analysis from the Depart- ment of Government, University of Essex. Introduction: Reframing the Perspective The majority of research on the media in southeastern Europe falls into what can be broadly described as the transition paradigm.1 In very general terms this perspective views the media in the post-communist world as a phenomenon that is undergoing a transition from a medium of dictatorial regimes to a pillar of democratic politics. There are two interrelated premises to this paradigm. First, there is a teleological dimension according to which the media should eventually resemble the media in the West. From this perspective, the western media represent an ideal towards which the media in the formerly socialist 1 I would like to express my gratitude to the following persons for supporting me in writ- ing this paper: Remzi Lani, Director of the Albanian Media Institute, Henri Cili, Owner of the daily MAPO, Robert Rakipllari Editor in Chief of the daily Panorama, Andi Tela, Director of the daily Panorama, Alfred Peza, News Director in Vizion+ TV, Aleksander Cipa, Editor in Chief of the daily Shqip, Ardian Thano, Editor in Chief of the daily Shekulli. All of the above were kind enough to share their extensive knowledge of and experience in Albanian media with me in interviews. Naturally, the views expressed in this article are all mine. Finally, I would like to thank the three anonymous peer reviewers whose critique, comments and suggestions proved very useful. 32 Blendi Kajsiu European states should gradually advance in order to contribute to democratic consolidation. This approach is perhaps best represented in the work of Peter Gross, according to whom “American and British media and their journalism, or rather the liberal democratic ideals on which they are based, [should be] the models against which all others should be measured”.2 In a similar fashion, other important authors have also analysed the media transformation from the transition perspective that implies a movement away from the communist model and towards the western one.3 This is part of a broader tendency, as Sparks and Reading have pointed out, to measure the media systems of the post-communist countries “against what is often termed the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ model”.4 The second premise of the transition perspective towards the media in southeastern Europe builds on a liberal approach that focuses primarily on the role of the media as a watchdog of government activity. According to Splichal, “in the classical liberal model of the media, their primary democratic role is defined in terms of a watch dog function; accordingly the media ought to control, and limit the power of state authorities”.5 From the liberal perspective the political role of the media is to protect individual freedom from the inherent authoritarian or totalitarian tendencies of those in power, or from the state in general. As Voltman has pointed out, “the normative justification of the political role of the media in Western Democra- cies […] have in common their aim to protect the objectives and interests of the individual vis-à-vis the state”.6 Hence, most of the reports on media developments in southeastern Europe originate from a liberal perspective that focused primarily on the degree to which media independence and freedom was threatened or guaranteed by the state and by the legal framework of the latter regarding media freedom.7 2 Peter Gross, Entangled Evolutions: Media and Democratization in Eastern Europe. Baltimore/MD, London 2002, 9. 3 See Karol Jakubowicz, Social and Media Change in Central and Eastern Europe: Frame- works of Analysis, in: David L. Paletz / Karol Jakubowicz (eds.), Business as Usual: Continuity and Change in Central and Eastern European Media. Cresskill/NJ 2003, 4-41. 4 Colin Sparks / Anna Reading, Communism, Capitalism and the Mass Media. London 1998, 175. 5 Slavko Splichal, Media Beyond Socialism: Theory and Practice in East-Central Europe. Boulder/CO 1994, 79. 6 Katrin Voltmer (ed.), Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies. London 2006, 5. 7 Thus, the 2011 Nations in Transit Report by Freedom House asked the following ques- tions, among others: 1. Are there legal protections for press freedom?; 2. Are journalists, especially investigative reporters, protected from victimization by powerful state or non-state The Instrumentalisation of Media in Albania 33 The transition paradigm on southeast European media has produced reports that appear like a long list of failures. They document the differences between the western liberal media ideal and the southeast European reality. While such an approach constantly tells us what is going wrong, it says little as to what is going on. In other words, such reports tell us what the media is not doing when compared to a given liberal ideal rather than how the media is actually functioning. Hence a different framework is needed, one which does not approach media developments from a perspective of failed democratisation. This is not to say that we should be less critical of media developments in the region, or that we should not have standards against which to measure them. However, it is important to change the perspective from one focusing on media freedom and plurality to one that tries to understand and assess the extent to which the media provides a space of undistorted communication that eventually serves to articulate and safeguard public interests. Unfortunately, liberal conceptions of the media largely ignore “a public interest that exists over and above the mere aggregation of particularistic interests”.8 Consequently, they ignore a critical approach to media developments from a public interest perspective, which is necessary in countries like Albania. When looking at the media developments in Albania, one is struck by the vast plurality of media outlets, as well as by the fact that most opposition media publish various criticisms against the government and constantly expose cases of abuse of power. Yet the extent to which the media in Albania serve the public interest, or the degree to which they provide an open and undistorted space for communication, is doubtful. Therefore, it is against the ideal of media that serve the public interest by providing a forum for undistorted communication that I shall try to assess media developments in Albania. My understanding of public interest is not that of the aggregation of particular interests. Nor do I understand public interest to be something that results from the clash of numerous private interests. Rather, public interest above all is a normative ideal that refers to the common good as something that is above the sphere of particular interests. It seems appropriate to adopt a Habermasian approach that emphasizes undistorted communication, and a public sphere where “collective will formation occurs through the medium of rational unconstrained communication”.9 From this perspective the actors?; 3. Does the state oppose onerous libel laws and other excessive legal penalties for “irresponsible” journalism?; 4. Are the media’s editorial independence and news-gathering functions free of interference from the government or private owners? See “Methodology”, in: Freedom House, Nations in Transit 2011, available at <http://www.freedomhouse.org/ sites/default/files/inline_images/NIT-2011-Methodology.pdf>. All internet sources were last accessed on 1 March, 2012. 8 Voltmer (ed.), Mass Media and Political Communication (above fn. 6), 5. 9 Jean L. Cohen, The Public Sphere, The Media and Civil Society, in: András Sajó / Monroe E. Price (eds.), Rights of Access to the Media. The Hague 1996, 19-50, 32. 34 Blendi Kajsiu media should relate to the process of collective will formation by providing the space and necessary information through which issues are discussed and debated. More specifically, according to Habermas, one of the first tasks that the media ought to fulfil is the “surveillance of the socio-political environment, reporting developments likely to impinge, positively or negatively, on the wel- fare of citizens”.10 From a Habermasian perspective, the press should serve as a medium for rational-critical debate as opposed to being the advocacy instrument of specific organised interests. It is the gradual shift from rational-critical debate towards the publicity of specific interest that marks the degradation of the public sphere in the West. According to Habermas: “The more their

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