The Albanian parliamentary majority has proposed a draft resolution to combat the fake news that affects the election and democratic processes in the country as a whole. The document, which the Parliamentary Leader of the majority, Taulant Bala, submitted to the Parliament on October 29 this year, explicitly states that Russia is a source of false information and propaganda in Albania, and that it affects the electoral process.
“There is a need to raise awareness of disinformation campaigns from Russia, as this country is a major source of disinformation in the region, Europe and beyond,” reads one part of the draft resolution.
The Albanian members of the parliament in this document outlined several proposals that would raise the fight against external influences at the institutional level. One of the proposals is to make more detailed scrutiny of funding for NGOs and political parties.
“The institutions that are responsible should develop adequate procedures for transparency and auditing of the funding of the political parties and organizations, including the external funding. And to take steps for legislative changes in this direction”- is said in the document signed by the parliamentary majority.
Other suggestions are to work on educating young people in schools to recognize and reject fake news. But also the media education of the whole population.
A separate law is proposed to address hybrid threats, including hacking attacks on the internet and misinformation. It is required to close the portals and profiles of social networks aimed at disrupting the democratic processes and inciting hatred and intolerance.
A more modern system for combating fake news, or the “Task Force”, or enhancing the information capabilities of the existing institutions to combat fake news, is also being proposed.
The Russian Ambassador to Tirana: The accusations against Russia are false
The Russian ambassador to Albania, Alexander Karpushin, in turn, dismisses all of these claims by the parliamentary majority as false and seeks evidence of claims that Russia is interfering in the developments in Albania.
“Whenever you have accused us of interfering in Tirana’s internal affairs we have been looking forward to seeing evidence. But our Albanian friends never showed any evidence. It is unfortunate that the Albanian authorities are inventing mythological histories to justify the current “squabbles” in the domestic politics, from which we stand very far”- wrote the Russian ambassador to Tirana.
Ferikan Iljazi
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This project was funded in part through a U.S. Embassy grant. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the implementers/authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government.
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