30. 12. 2011

ANEM’S REQUEST FOR PASSING A DOCUMENT THAT WILL MORE CLOSELY REGULATE TELEVISION AND RADIO ADVERTISING RULES

ANEM believes that the provisions of the Advertising Law, pertaining to advertising and sponsorship on television and radio, are insufficiently precise, which may be the reason for having several hundred misdemeanor trials currently led against broadcasters in Serbia. Hence, on December 30, 2011, ANEM addressed a letter to the Republic Broadcasting Agency, calling on the regulator to pass the proper document to provide for such more detailed rules, since the agency is authorized for that under the Advertising Law and the Broadcasting Law.

ANEM believes that the absence of such rules presents a source of legal uncertainty for several reasons. Firstly, a whole array of violations of the Advertising Law pertains to various rules applying to specific types of genres of programs; for that reason, the RBA ought to publish the criteria under which it has classified the programs by genre, since it often happens that the same program is classified differently by the broadcaster and the RBA. Secondly, some concepts from the Broadcasting Law and the European Convention on Cross-border Television differ, since Serbia ratified that Convention after the adoption of the Advertising Law. Thirdly, when providing for more detailed rules on advertising and sponsorship on television and radio, the RBA should also take into account the Interpretative Communication of the European Commission from 2004, as this document provides for an additional explanation of the meaning and the scope of the Convention.

ANEM believes that, by passing the appropriate document, the RBA should regulate no less than the following: define the concepts of "a full hour of aired program" and "daily aired program" because they may be interpreted differently. The Agency should define the conditions for a recognizable separation of commercial slots and TV sales slots from other programming content with sound and picture. It should determine more closely the conditions for advertising during live transmissions of sporting events that do not involve breaks, as well as the conditions for new advertising techniques that are not expressly regulated either by the Advertising Law or the Convention, such as the split screen or virtual sponsorship. The RBA should determine more precisely the meaning and scope of the concepts of direct advertising of sale, purchase or lease of product and services of the sponsor or third party, namely of the special reference to these products and services in sponsored programs. Finally, ANEM believes it is also necessary to regulate the issue of inserting advertisements specifically intended for viewers in Serbia into cable and satellite channels available in the domestic cable and satellite DTH offer.

In its letter, ANEM also pointed to its readiness to cooperate and provide the necessary support to the RBA in order to suitably resolve the aforementioned issues, aiming at encouraging the development of broadcasting and productivity in the area of media and television in the Republic of Serbia.

The full text of the letter is available here (available only in Serbian)