The Central Election Commission, in cooperation with International IDEA, the Rule of Law Center in Finland and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Albania (BIRN) held a round table on the policy reform “Strengthening the integrity of elections through monitoring of online political advertising”.
This activity brought together representatives of the media, civil society, international organizations focusing on elections, international experts and aimed to explore and address the main challenges faced by civil society organizations and the media ahead of 2025 parliamentary elections.
The State Election Commissioner, Mr. Ilirjan Celibashi put the emphasis on the regulatory framework/legislation, which, to some extent regulates the financing of political parties, but that there is still much to be done regarding online advertising. “We have proposed several amendments to the Albanian Parliament, supported by other civil society actors, which aim to address the gap of the current legislation currently in force regarding advertising in general and online advertising in particular and holding of online election campaign. There has not been a real electoral reform, but the CEC remains committed to doing more and improve, despite the current regulatory framework in place for monitoring the 2025 parliamentary election campaign,” he added.
International experts shared the practices of countries such as Moldova and Finland on legislation, cooperation with large IT companies and digital media companies, on monitoring and the measures taken by relevant institutions.
As the 2025 parliamentary elections are approaching, the participants shared their opinions on the instruments that can be used to improve monitoring, because the fact pace of digitalization continues to influence and transform the dynamics of political campaigns, both from the perspective of funding sources and the channels through which the election campaign is staged.
During the discussions, it was highlighted that reporting of accurate and timely information, in order for the voters to make an informed choice, continues to remain a challenge, as long as there are no regulations in place regarding online media campaigns.
Media monitoring of election campaigns is essential for maintaining electoral integrity, ensuring, among other things, transparency, fairness and accountability, by taking into account also the gender perspectives.
The participants shared the same view that effective tracking and monitoring of political advertising and campaigns in both traditional and digital media requires innovative and improved methodologies, despite different levels of regulation.
