34. Are there provisions for free or subsidized access to media for candidates?

'Article 80: Electoral campaign of electoral subjects on the Public Radio and Television1. During the electoral campaign, the Public Radio and Television provides to registered political parties and to the CEC free airtime for campaigning, which is allocated according to the following rules: a) a total of two hours is provided to the CEC according to the time slots it requests. At least two-thirds of this time shall be between 18:00 and 22:00; b) for parliamentary parties that received more than 20 per cent of the seats in the last elections to the Assembly, the CEC allocates equal airtime of no less than 30 minutes on the Public Television and the same airtime on the Public Radio; for the rest of the parliamentary parties, this airtime is no less than 15 minutes. If airtime is increased for one party or one respective coalition, the time allotted to another party or coalition shall be proportionally increased; c) each party that does not hold a seat in the Assembly, but runs in elections is allocated 10 minutes of airtime on the Public Television and 10 minutes of airtime on the Public Radio; he respective electoral subject must be clearly identifiable on any political programme or advertisement for purposes of electoral propaganda. If the political programme or advertisement is not clearly identifiable, the CEC orders the immediate suspension of its broadcast until the subject is rendered identifiable according to the requirements in this point.' (Source: The Electoral Code of the Republic of Albania, No. 10019/29.12. 2008, as amended No. 31/02.04.2015).

'In addition, according to the CEC decision, the SP and DP (with more than 20 per cent of seats in the parliament) received 60 minutes of free air time; the SMI, PJIU, and CDP (with less than 20 per cent of parliamentary seats) received 30 minutes each; and each of the remaining 11 contesting non-parliamentary parties
received 10 minutes of free air time at the public broadcaster. ' (Source: OSCE/ODIHR (2017) Republic of Albania, Parliamentary Elections, 25 June 2017. OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report. OSCE/ODIHR, Warsaw”, p. 16)

There are no explicit regulations on the candidates' coverage by the media, only regarding political parties.