TIRANA, November 19/ATA/ The Central Election Commission in cooperation with International IDEA, the Center for the Rule of Law in Finland and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Albania (BIRN) organized a roundtable on “Strengthening elections integrity through online ads oversight”.
This activity brought together representatives of the media, civil society, international organizations focusing on the elections, international experts and aimed to explore and discuss the main challenges faced by civil society organizations and the media before the 2025 Parliamentary elections.
State Commissioner of Elections Ilirjan Celibashi emphasized the regulatory framework/legislation, which to some extent regulates the financing of political parties, but which still has a lot to do in terms of online ads.
“We have proposed to the Parliament of Albania several amendments, supported by other actors of civil society, which aim to fill the gap that currently exists in the legislation in force for advertising in general and online ads in particular, as well as the development of the election campaign online. There has been no genuine electoral reform, but the CEC remains committed to doing more and better even with this regulatory framework that is currently for monitoring the election campaign for the Assembly 2025”, he added.
International experts brought the practices of countries such as Moldova and Finland on legislation, cooperation with large companies of information technology and digital media, monitoring and measures taken by the relevant institutions.
As the Parliamentary elections of 2025 approach, the participants shared their thoughts on the instruments that can be used to improve monitoring, as the high speed of digitalization continues to influence and transform the dynamics of political campaigns, both from the perspective of funding sources, as well as for the channels where the election campaign takes place. /j.p/p.s./
