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Recommendations on Kinostudio films broadcasting

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On November 10th, 2022, the Institute for Democracy, Media & Culture (IDMC) in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), held the roundtable "Kinostudio Against the Clergy", 55 years after Albania proclaimed itself the first atheist country in the world.

On November 13th, 1967, by decree of the Presidium of the People's Assembly, Albania banned any form of religion and began a wave of violence and persecution against the clergy, worship and its religious objects. This repressive policy was supported, among other things, by the cinematographic productions of Kinostudio, the former state film studio, which denigrated the image of the clergy and religion. The Kinostudio films are still broadcast unfiltered and without context on Albanian televisions and online.

The round table aimed to debate openly and find regulatory mechanisms for the broadcasting of these films as it was done by other countries with a similar history.

IDMC drafted the recommendations of the round table and supplemented them with the suggestions from representatives of local religious communities and public institutions, such as the Audiovisual Media Authority, the Institute for Research on Communism Crimes and Consequences, Authority on Access to Information on Former State Security Service, the Commissioner for Protection against Discrimination, the Commission for Education and Means of Public Information, the Albanian Helsinki Committee, the Audio-Visual Defense Forum, the Department of Journalism in UT and members of the Steering Council of RTSH.

Below you can find the recommendations that came out of this round table. To add to the suggestions, please send us an email at address@idmc.al.

Religious communities:

  1. Establish a joint working group with experts, historians, theologians, filmmakers, etc., to examine the film materials of the former "New Albania" Kinostudio to coordinate a common position that offers constructive and consultative solutions.
  2. Publish in the media and virtual space an analysis and common stance of religious communities on the issue.
  3. Select a joint representative group of people to be involved in possible public (e.g. events on the screening of films by the Central State Archive of Film, public schools or the Albanian Public Radio-Television) or media discussions.

Audiovisual Media Authority:

  1. Support a professional and independent monitoring project for dictatorship era film productions that appear on the TV channels of the public broadcaster, on private televisions, on cable network and digital platforms.
  2. Prepare a catalog of criteria that evaluate programming and broadcast materials containing propaganda of the communist dictatorship and denying the crimes and consequences of the dictatorship for religious communities and other interest groups.
  3. Verify contracts for broadcasting rights and electronic programming guides (EPG).
  4. Support and adhere to the resolutions adopted by the Parliament of Albania condemning the crimes of communism, and the recommendations deriving from them.

Parliament through the Commission for Education and Means of Public Information:

  1. Review or amend the laws determining the means of broadcast on the Albanian Public Radio-Television and public settings (e.g. in educational activities and institutions) of the dictatorship cinematography (e.g. with warning labels including the year of creation, a logo present throughout the broadcast or in part, descriptive text or audio/video interpretation before the broadcast etc.)
  2. A resolution to Parliament about the dictatorship propaganda manipulating Albanian culture and cinematography in historical terms, denigrating the clergy, the cult of the Party and the dictator, the cult of the State Security Service, the cult of "New Man", of class warfare and servility of submission to power and the Party.
  3. Review the law regulating the activity of the Audiovisual Media Authority to give it power to decide how Kinostudio films are broadcast.
  4. Encourage the Audiovisual Media Authority to require new ways for displaying dictatorship cinematography (with warning labels, logos, accompanying debates before or after the film, and with an updated EPG).

Ministry of Culture:

  1. Establish a working group with historians, communication experts and archive researchers, representatives of the clergy, filmmakers and film art experts (National Cinematography Center, Central State Film Archive and the Faculty of Performing Arts, the University of Arts) to classify from a propaganda perspective which films are suitable for display to the general public.
  2. Establish a joint working group with historians, clergy representatives, filmmakers and experts from the Central State Film Archive to update and contextualize the description of dictatorship film materials in catalogs and television programs.
  3. Support with content and financially a series of public debate shows on RTSH, featuring experts and representatives of interest groups, on regulating the broadcasting of films that propagated the PPSH and the communist regime.
  4. Financially support alternative works of art as opposed to propaganda films, to show the true reality of the communist period.

National Cinematography Center:

  1. Ad-hoc meeting of the Visioning Commission to examine the cinematic output of the dictatorship if it complies with current laws/regulations, violates religious coexistence, discriminates against human dignity, and denigrates believers.
  2. Categorize the dictatorship era films according to audience A/B/C.
  3. Review film circulation licenses if the cinematographic materials have issues in terms of propaganda, violation of human dignity, ethnic, religious minorities, etc.

Albanian Radio-Television:

  1. Follow dictatorship cinematography with debate shows focusing on their context, political backstage and leadership, influence of the propaganda apparatus on the directors, screenwriters or actors' interpretations.
  2. Contextualize electronic guides with explanatory descriptions, such as "Warning! This film contains ideological elements of the PPSH and propaganda of the Albanian communist regime”, a stamp, a logo, etc. as well as contextualize the films' descriptions in RTSH's online program.
  3. Create a training module for journalists and RTSH employees on the issue of religion and propaganda in collaboration with IDMC and/or the Department of Journalism and Communication (University of Tirana), and with representatives of the Interreligious Community and other stakeholders.
  4. Review amendments to the law no. 9677, dated 13.01.2007 on the broadcasting of regime propaganda films on public broadcaster RTSH's channels.

University of Arts:

  1. Launch a new study program for art criticism, more specifically on dictatorship cinematography.

Ministry of Education:

  1. Reflect in the school curriculum, in subjects such as history, citizenship, arts, etc. the various aspects of the Stalinist dictatorship in Albania, its consequences and the decommunization process.

Central State Film Archive:

  1. Update the online archive of film materials (currently powered by the Flash Player system, which was officially abandoned since 2021 by Google, Microsoft or Mozilla).
  2. Update and contextualize the description of cinematographic materials according to the guidelines issued by the working groups with other institutions.
  3. Review how children's films are broadcast in public events, based on the context and approach defined by the working groups with other institutions.

Institute for Research on Communism Crimes and Consequences (ISKK),
Authority on Access to Information on Former State Security Service (AIDSSH),
Central State Archive (AQSH):

  1. Coordinate inter-institutionally to support research on archival data that highlight the plans, guidelines and history of propaganda in dictatorship cinematography.
  2. Support the publications that address archival data findings and analyses about propaganda in dictatorship cinematography.
  3. Expose and promote good examples of the clergy's contribution to the development of Albanian society, by presenting film and documentary materials that speak of interreligious coexistence in Albania.

Albanian Helsinki Committee,
Commissioner for Protection against Discrimination:

  1. Hold consultations between human rights bodies and relevant public institutions in Albania.

International partners (OSCE, KAS, etc.):

  1. Support the public broadcaster RTSH's (or private media) programming with short or long film productions that address various aspects of the communist dictatorship and increase social and younger generation's awareness about the consequences of the dictatorship.