VOA: 5 families and 27 individuals own the main television media in Albania

2023-07-04 20:03:10, Aktualitet CNA

In Albania, a study by the Open Data Albania Center revealed that the vast majority of the 14 most powerful television media businesses are owned by 5 families, as well as co-owned by 27 individuals with close family ties.

The study notes that these media owners own a series of other businesses and that in many cases they are beneficiaries of concession contracts, beneficiaries of the Albania 1 Euro program as well as strategic investor status.

According to the study of the Open Data Albania center, nearly 80 percent of the consolidated Albanian television media are owned by 5 families, co-ownership between family members and a group of 27 individuals owning the main television media.

The authors claimed that most of them are close relatives and descendants with the same surname.

Expert Pajtim Nikolli of the Albanian Institute of Sciences and co-author of the study, says that these 27 shareholders and owners of television businesses are meanwhile shareholders in 11 to 39 other businesses, in many cases connected to public funds and the government.

"In total, 10 contracts or PPP/concession agreements have been obtained from 10 media businesses, a strategic investor status has been obtained, as well as 3 decisions of the Council of Ministers as part of the Albania 1 Euro program," says Mr. Nikolli .

These media owners are affected in their many businesses by the government's decisions, researchers estimate, because they are increasingly benefiting from public contracts, because they are simultaneously owners in the construction sector, in the banking sector, in trade and export-import, in energy, in national infrastructure and private universities.

The head of the Open Data Albania Center, Aranita Brahaj, media moguls are being created in Albania, who are very active in other businesses, but also have a backup business card as media owners.

"We see that the profits that these businesses derive from this media sector, from media production, or from the audience through different ways, are very little compared to the profit or capital, with the economic performance, that these individuals have in other businesses," he says . Mrs. Brahaj.

The authors claim that Albania has left behind the period when the media owners started any other business, while now it is the businessmen from other fields who come to invest in the media, which their peripheral business with small profits in relation to the dozens of other businesses.

The position of media owners as businessmen in relations with the government and public funds has increased year by year, as well as the number of their benefits depending on the decisions of the government and other state agencies.

"Besides the media, they also operate in many other sectors such as construction, tourism, resorts, which are a powerful business. It turns out that these individuals have the greatest power in these sectors and not in the media. Moreover, most of them have become part of media businesses after reaching high levels in other businesses" , says Mr. Nikolli.

Televisions continue to be important in Albania, because the majority of citizens continue to be informed and receive messages from them, and are the main industry of thought and opinion, the researchers claim.

But how much does this whole situation affect the editorial freedom of the media of these diverse owners?

"We have not done a study of the media content of these owners, but if we see their economic power, economic interests, the connections that these interests have directly with the decision-making of the executive, or the political force that is in power, then we say that opinion-making is to some extent endangered, because such multiple interests do not guarantee us media, which can work in the interest of the public, even more so in a country where monitoring is a weak process," says Mrs. Brahaj .

The study by the team of the Albanian Institute of Science at the Open Data Center Albania interwoven the data of the National Business Center with those of the Agency for the Handling of Concessions, (where data is collected on the concessional contracts of businesses), with those of the Albanian Agency for Investment Development , (where data is collected on businesses that have received the status of Strategic Investor), with Treasury Transactions (on tenders won by businesses and money they have received from the state budget), as well as with government decisions on businesses benefiting from Albania 1 Euro program.

Among the examined televisions, 3 of them have a national license, while the other 11 are licensed as analogue broadcasting entities./ VOA