More tolerance on the part of the politicians and high state authorities

Tirana, May 18, 2004
According to the press reports, Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania Mr. Fatos Nano has filed a penal suit against the publisher of “Koha Jonë” newspaper , Mr. Nikolla Lesi, and at the same time has civilly sued him in the district court.

It’s not in the powers of the Albanian Helsinki Committee to judge either about the reliability of the Prime Minister’s claims   or to recommend the way to their solution, because this is in the powers of the relevant bodies. However, being consistent in its attitude, AHC articulates the following opinions as follows:

It’s the duty of the media to inform about different issues political ones included as well as about issues of common concern whereas the public is entitled to have this information. Freedom of press is a powerful means to identify and judge the attitudes of the state authorities or party leaders. In this perspective, freedom of authorities is limited due to the interest of the democratic society to give access to the media to accomplish the important role of the public observer.
 
AHC is not  in agreement either with the defamation or insults made on the part of special journalists. Journalists shall observe the journalist code of conduct and the privacy right. Nevertheless politicians and state authorities are inevitably subject to control and severe criticism, and reaction to any single word they say or any single action they assume. Thus as it has been stated in the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, they shall be more tolerant especially to overstatements and debatable criticism.  But this doesn’t mean that they are not entitled to law protection, or to the protection of their dignity and reputation. In these cases they are frequently recommended to deprecate all the public declarations, transparent pronouncements etc.
Its completely different with the common people not holding such positions. In this direction the journalists need to be mature because all are equal before the law.

AHC thinks that the punishment of the journalist is justifiable in only rare cases, where it is obvious evidence that he has abused with his honorable profession and his significant mission he has deliberately infringed the individual dignity and personality. Otherwise, his punishment would negatively influence the freedom of press and information.
AHC thinks that criticism of the people of media on one hand and the awareness of the public authorities on the other hand would serve the achievement of the democratic standards in our country.