State Publications and the role of the Media in promoting Governmental Transparency

“State Publications and the role of the Media in promoting Governmental Transparency” was the main theme of the training organized by CPII on January 20, 2012. This Training may be considered the first ever held on this very specific topic in Albania. It was attended by 30 senior journalists, who actually work for the most influent media outlets in Albania (both printed and Electronic, i.e. Panorama newspaper, Gazeta Shqiptare, Shekulli, Top Channel, News 24, Ora NEWS, etc). Most of the participating journalists are members of Justice Journalusts Forum, established by CPII three years ago.

The aim of the organizers was to provide journalists with a profound understanding on the functioning of the state publications system in Albania (legal framework) and on how to make use of it as a primary source of official information (legal, sub legal acts, etc), to efficiently control governmental transparency during decision making process and to properly inform the public

This training program was considered to be indispensable given the noticed difficulties faced by journalists in reporting the monitoring findings, each time the new annual report “State Publications Transparency in Albania” was launched. The main training module consisted on carefull exploration of the existing legal provisions in Albanian which pose the obligation for central institution to disclosure the acts the issue during exercising their constitutional functions.

Knowing the legal framework is considered by CPII a pre-condition to efficiently involve media in continuous monitoring with regard to acts’ disclosure, especially government’s decisions.  Media must be involved in such kind of important monitoring to further increase positive pressure towards responsible governmental institutions, to efficiently control transparency during decision making process and to properly inform the public.

The second and third training module offered detailed explanation on the right to information legal framework in Albania (lector: Sami Neza) as well as on the concession contract disclosure (lector: Eniel Kolaneci). Certificates were awarded to all those who successfully attended the training.

Right after the training, on a 4-months period, the journalists will be encouraged and facilitated to reflect the training program and the new skills acquired into everyday job in the media they work for. Their reports, articles and investigative stories will be carefully observed and collected by the project team during this time period. A panel composed of training lectors (senior professional journalist and law practitioners) will asses and evaluate the journalist outcome product and based on strict criteria, established in advance, will award a first prize to the best journalist report on the state publications subject. A second and e third prize will be awarded too, to fully motivate all program participants (journalists). All articles will be also published online in www.infocip.org. This initiative is supported by Partnership for Transparency Fund, in Washington D.C.