Thewesternbalkans
The Albanian Interior Minister Bledi Çuçi has announced on 1 of April that the government is prepared to propose plan to set up a special parliamentary commission to fight foreign interference and disinformation in the public sphere.
The ruling Socialist Party will submit to the Speaker of the Assembly a request to create a body that will “implement a holistic and long-term approach to addressing foreign interference in democratic processes in Albania.” – the Minister said.
Mr. Çuçi pointed out that this foreign interference may include “traditional and social media disinformation campaigns to influence public opinion, direct and indirect financial support for disinformation, the economic blackmail of public actors, and the manipulation of civil society”.
The announcement continues that “the initiative stems from Albania’s commitment to a Memorandum of Understanding dated 15 February 2024 between Albania and the USA to address the manipulation of information by foreign state actors, the Tirana Declaration of 28 February 2024, of the Ukraine-Southeastern Europe Summit, and EU recommendations for continuing efforts to close the space for foreign interference and information manipulation.”
Comments: In 2023, the European Commission announced a preparation of directive “Defence of Democracy”, which aims to reveal direct or indirect influence on advocacy or interest groups by obliging them to make their financing public.
In France, lawmakers on 28 March passed a bill to combat foreign interference. The bill was necessary because “What is at stake is the protection of our sovereignty, our democratic and liberal values, and the protection of the nation’s interests” following the announcement of the rapporteur Sacha Houlie.
On the other side, In Hungary, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban passed a funding law (evaluated as controversial) to restrict the work of NGOs that promote the LGBT community and those promoting democracy.
Even just the two examples show the particular sensitivity of the subject and the fine line between protecting the value system and serving the interests of certain authoritarian circles.
