Institutions' PR versus the right to information, Albanian reality

Abstract

The evolution of public relations is interrelated with the development of the various practices and the relation between institutions and media, where a distinct issue is the fulfilment of the right to information, or more specifically the access to information. Thus, the relation between media and institutions has often been subject of discussion and an ongoing debate about the informing role of public relations regarding topics and issues of public interest. Are institutions‟ PR oriented to respect the right to information and qualitative information to citizens? What facilities provide the press offices of central and local institutions for access to information to the media? Do media make use of the law on the right to information? How much media use the right to information to promote and provide transparency of public institutions? What is the role of information and communication technology to increase transparency and reliability of information? How Albanian institutions have responded to the media, civil society organizations to meet legal obligations regarding the right to information? These are some of the questions argued nowadays at a time when evolution of practices and relations between the institution's public relations and media have occurred. The use of new information technologies and social media has increased significantly the level of communication between the institutions and the public, the political actors with the public and vice versa. In this new reality is more than relevant the discussion about the impact of public relations on the accuracy of the information and information covering various areas of society. This research aims at studying specific aspects of the relation between public relations on one hand and the approaches to fulfil the right to information on the other hand, which is a constitutional right and regulated by a specific law, along with the relation between press offices and the media in the framework of the right to information, and treatment of official requests from journalists.