14. 12. 2012

ANEM DEMANDS ADOPTION OF NEW ADVERTISING LAW

Belgrade, December 14, 2012 - The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) submitted an official letter to the Ministry of Culture and Media and the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications, requesting the adoption of the new Advertising Law.

In its letter to the above ministries, ANEM pointed out that the deadline for reviewing the possibilities to amend certain laws, including the Advertising Law, defined by the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy for development of public information systems in the Republic of Serbia by 2016, had been exceeded for more than 4 months. According to the Action Plan, the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society of the Republic of Serbia has been indicated as a holder of the said activity, namely the Culture and Media Ministry that has taken over the rights and obligations of the former ministry in the field of media, in line with the new Law on Ministries. In its letter, ANEM urged this Ministry to inform the public about the activities it had conducted in order to review the possibilities of amending the Advertising Law, as the public had not been informed about it by now.

ANEM, however, emphasized the need to adopt an entirely new Advertising Law, since the current law was not an adequate legal framework to fit the changed conditions in the media market in the Republic of Serbia and in that sense, it could not be possibly amended so that it could respond to new circumstances. Pointing to the key problems, ANEM indicated that the current Advertising Law was not in line with European legislation and practice in this area, particularly the EU Directive on Audiovisual Media Services, and that it allowed for the possibility of different interpretation, resulting in serious problems in its application. Furthermore, the new Advertising Law must also regulate some circumstances that the existing law does not recognize, such as advertising within foreign programs that are rebroadcast in Serbia, but also some other issues that have been identified as problematic in the work of broadcasters.

ANEM pointed out that the adoption of this law should not rely on the Draft Advertising Law from 2010, since the work of the said Draft excluded the participation of the working group. After the insisting of the working group and other interested parties, this Draft was later withdrawn. The main objections of ANEM to this Draft were related primarily to its nonconformity with the current European legal framework and with domestic regulations.

Starting from the fact that a set of media laws is currently under development and that the Advertising Law, although not a media law, has an important impact on the functioning of the media, ANEM calls on the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications to initiate, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Media, the procedure of adoption of the new Advertising Law in the shortest possible time and thus prevent the passing of directly conflicting regulations.

ANEM President, Sasa Mirkovic