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Media Council and Media Alliance: Court decisions to delete articles violate press freedom

2026-05-10 23:36:57Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Media Council and Media Alliance: Court decisions to delete articles violate

The Albanian Media Council (AMC) and the Ethical Media Alliance (AME) have reacted to the decision of the Court of First Instance, by Judge Flamur Kapllani, which requires the removal and blocking of access to media content.

The two organizations express concern about the use of interim judicial measures that order the removal or blocking of media content before the substantive examination of the case.

According to the KSHM and AME, such orders create a problem of principle, as when the court orders the removal of articles without a decision on their legality, the measure risks functioning as preliminary censorship.

The statement emphasizes that reputation should be protected through proportionate means such as: the right of reply, correction, refutation, explanatory note, updating of the article, judicial decision on the merits, and compensation when damage is proven, and that immediate removal of articles should not be the first solution.

Reaction:

The Albanian Media Council and the Ethical Media Alliance express their concern about  the decision to Secure the Lawsuit (dated 24/04/2026, number 12320) taken by Judge Flamur Kapllani, in the Court of First Instance.

We express concern about the use of interim judicial measures ordering the removal or blocking of media content before the substantive examination of the case.

Without prejudging any specific dispute and without undertaking to assess whether a particular publication is accurate, inaccurate, ethical or unethical, we believe that such orders raise an important principled problem: when a court orders the removal of articles before deciding whether they are illegal, the measure risks functioning as preliminary censorship.

The Constitution prohibits prior censorship of the means of communication. This prohibition is a fundamental guarantee that courts, public authorities, and private actors with economic or political power cannot remove information from public circulation before a full and reasoned decision has been made on its legality.

The Albanian Media Council and the Ethical Media Alliance emphasize that the response to a contested publication cannot, as a rule, be its immediate removal from public circulation before the merits are judged. In a democratic society, reputation is protected through proportionate means such as: the right of reply, correction, refutation, explanatory note, updating of the article, judicial decision on the merits and, when damage is proven, compensation.

We are particularly concerned when such measures are formulated broadly, encompassing portals, social networks and any other digital environment, without precisely defining the specific content, the specific links, the specific expressions and the reason why each intervention is necessary. A general order to remove content creates legal uncertainty, encourages self-censorship and gives powerful parties an instrument of pressure on the media.

In cases affecting press freedom, hearing the media before the court's decision should be a necessity. Decisions in a consulting room, without the presence of the media as a party, are not justified in a democratic society.

We request that temporary measures to remove or block media content should not be used as a substitute for substantive judgment, nor as a shortcut to eliminate unpleasant, contested, or critical information from the public space.

KSHM and AME call on citizens to complete a complaint process at www.ame.media or www.kshm.al, before going to court, to attempt a faster and non-conflictual solution through self-regulation.

Regarding the articles subject to judgment, based on the Albanian Journalist's Code of Ethics, the Albanian Journalist Council and the Albanian Journalist Association note that,

the articles cannot be considered "fraudulent", because they are based on a concrete fact, which is a document produced by the court;

The titles used are sensational and create a different idea from the content of the articles.

Therefore, the KSHM and AME recommend to the media outlets involved in this lawsuit to correct the headlines in accordance with the ethical standards of the Alliance for Ethical Media and the Journalist's Code.


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