Honourable friends,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to welcome you to Tirana for the Conference “Freedom of Expression and the Media”, organized by the Centre of Excellence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Council of Europe Office in Tirana.

A special greeting goes to Ms. Mijatovic, OSCE Representative for the freedom of the media. Dear Dunja, thank you for finding time to be here with us today and I take this occasion to congratulate you on winning the prestigious Charlemagne award, thus becoming the first South East European to win the most important European award for human rights and the media.

I would also like to greet Mr. Getachew Engida, Deputy Director General of UNESCO, an organization at the forefront of UN’s efforts to promote freedom of the media worldwide.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are gathered here today to discuss freedom of expression and media.

People often talk about freedom of expression, press or media as if they were synonyms of one-another. I will not bother you, on this Monday morning, with a lecture on the difference between these concepts, although I assure you, as a jurist, the temptation is a great.

I will instead refer to a very well-known American law scholar, Louis Brandeis, associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.

More than 100 years ago (1914), Brandeis wrote: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman”.

It is not very pleasant to talk about disinfectants or policing, so commonly we chose to talk about transparency. We only need to look at what is happening in our neighboring country, Macedonia, and we can assert that what is going on there is policing, while what is needed is transparency.

Freedom of expression – the freedom of thought and the freedom to exchange information or ideas without the intervention of public authorities and without considering borders – is an integral part of every democratic society.

Democracy means participation of citizens in collective decision-making, be it directly or through their representatives, and it requires a well-informed, inclusive and pluralistic public sphere.

Information “under the sunlight” helps clarifying a great number of questions, either real or perceived. I am not only talking about the information provided or obtained from governmental institutions, although it is crucial if we want to achieve accountability of elected officials towards their citizens.

Exchange of information or ideas among citizens is equally essential for a healthy and democratic society.

By playing a central role in the protection of the basic human rights, the freedom of expression is more than a right in itself. That is why there can be no democracy without a broad guarantee of the right to freedom of expression.

But the sunlight is not enough, we also need electric light.

We need it to shed light on that part of information or ideas that are not lit by sunlight, in order to enable what seems to be clear, but in reality is everything but clear.

For this, we need the media, which is the author and the “editor” of public life.

However, if we ask a proper governance to provide and ensure critical media for the self-governance, we ask the media, as the “fourth power”, for objectivity, truthfulness, impartiality, quality, reliability.

Where there are rights, there are obligations. And where there are rights, sometimes there are limitations.

If we speak the language of the European Court of Human Rights, “the right to freedom of expression applies not only to “information” or “ideas” that are favorably received or regarded as inoffensive but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population” because ” such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness, without which there is no democratic society “.

But where are the limits of the freedom of expression?

Should there be any limits to the right of expression which spreads, encourages, promotes or justifies racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism?

Should there be any limits to the expression of hatred based on intolerance, including intolerance manifesting itself in the form of nationalism and aggressive ethno- centrism, discrimination and hostility towards minorities, migrants and persons of immigrant origin?

In today’s reality, in the time of free movement and the world of the Internet, we often come across a language of hatred and violent reaction, up to the extreme, to what is perceived as language of hatred, as well as the exercise of bigotry and hatred, which is sold as an exercise of freedom.

Ideas that offend, shock or disturb will not fade if they do not see the “sunlight”. But what happens if we cast them away in the darkness, under the carpet, below the ground? Will they fade, or will they be nurtured and strengthened?

I will not try to give answers to very difficult questions in order to have answers here, but I will once again bring attention to the media, as an author and editor of information, with the ability to help or obstruct communication and understanding in the society, promote or oppress the debate – because, as there is “hate speech”, there is also “hate silence.”

 

Dear friends,

Albania has a relatively recent history with regard to the right to freedom of expression and the media. In fact, we will soon celebrate the 20th anniversary (July 13, 1995) of full membership to the Council of Europe.

For a country aiming to join the European Union, respect for the freedom of expression and the media is a key indicator of the willingness and the democratic maturity of the candidate country.

There is no region or country to have achieved perfection when it comes to freedom of expression and media. To be as honest and transparent as possible, I must say that we are not working to achieve perfection.

Nevertheless, in Albania, we are working as decision and policy makers with the civil society and international partners, for a correct understanding of freedom of expression and the media, as the basis for citizen participation in politics, as the foundation of a democratic society, as a milestone on the road to European Union membership.

In conclusion, allow me to express my gratitude to the participants for their admirable work, over the years, in helping new democracies like Albania to properly fulfill their commitments in the field of freedom of expression and the media.

I wish you all a fruitful discussion during the proceedings of this conference.

Thanks!