ANEM Activities

Home / ANEM Activities / Advocacy activities

25. 02. 2010

ANEM’S SUGGESTIONS FOR SYSTEMATIC CHANGES OF THE RBA CODE OF CONDUCT FOR BROADCASTERS

The general binding instructions of conduct for broadcasters - the Broadcasters' Code of Conduct - passed in 2007 by the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA) is a set of 13 special general binding instructions governing an array of issues in the area of broadcasters' program content. Non-compliance with the Code entails all the sanctions that the RBA may pronounce pursuant to the Broadcasting Law, including temporary or permanent revoking of the license.

The application of the Code in practice has revealed its many shortcomings: many provisions thereof are imprecise and result in confusion in their application; certain concepts are poor and stifle media freedom. Wishing to contribute to remedying of these shortcomings, which are threatening its members and other broadcasters, ANEM sent a letter to the RBA on February 25, 2010 pointing to the main direction of the necessary changes to the Code.

ANEM's principal suggestions:

The legal basis in the introductory provisions must be determined differently - instead of referring to the Broadcasting Law, the relevant constitutional clauses, provisions of the European Convention of the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as the provisions of the ratified European Convention on Crossborder Televisions should be invoked; reference to the Broadcasting Law and other relevant regulations should be used in specific instructions elaborating on the said laws.

2. All individual instructions should have a form that should:

Quote the specific regulation that is the legal basis for the instruction;
Provide examples hinting at how the Agency will interpret the regulation.

Taking into account the above, Instruction 1, pertaining to the general obligations of broadcasters, should be amended; in the process, the restrictions provided for by the law must be respected and no additional restrictions contrary to the Constitutions and ratified international treaties should be imposed.

3. At the end of the Code, in the provisions regulating the implementation thereof, other legal remedies provided for by the law should also be provided; where for the same violation the law provides for criminal, misdemeanor or damages responsibility, the Agency should only exceptionally, in case of serious or repeated violation, treat the same as a basis for pronouncing all the measures it is authorized to take.

In its letter to the RBA, ANEM pointed to the need to amend the Code, since the current provisions thereof are putting electronic media in a far more difficult position than other media; these provisions are laying down excessive obligations and responsibilities for broadcasters, not borne by other media. In further talks with RBA representatives, ANEM will present its concrete proposals for fundamentally improving the Code.