Slovenia

[SI] The Draft of The New Media Law Set for First Reading

IRIS 2000-4:1/22

Matjaz Gerl

Slovenian Broadcasting Council

The new bill, already sent to Parliament by the government in June last year, is now ready for the first reading in Parliament (probably in April) as the competent parliamentary committee (the Committee for Culture) has adopted the draft.

The draft has been changed significantly since the government sent it to Parliament. In particular, certain powers of the Ministry of Culture have been abolished in the draft and were transferred to the Broadcasting Council as an independent regulatory authority. According to the revised draft, the Broadcasting Council's competencies will be increased significantly. It will handle all licensing procedures and be competent to adopt certain decrees and codes.

Furthermore, the draft liberalises limitations on ownership in that single ownership of daily press publishers becomes unlimited (at present each owner is limited to 33%). However, certain chain ownership restrictions are still envisaged.

The parliamentary committee has adopted new limitations concerning advertising on public service television, which had been proposed by the government as an alternative solution, and had been lobbied by the commercial televisions. If Parliament adopts this solution, public service TV will be allowed to advertise up to five minutes per hour in prime time (8pm to 10pm), and up to 15% (20%) outside prime time.

As a result of commercial TV's lobbying, the parliamentary committee asked the Ministry of Culture, which is proposing the draft, to reconsider its proposal concerning advertising during prime time before the draft goes to the first reading in Parliament.

The draft completely harmonises audio-visual legislation with the law of the European Community, but is still considered to introduce some unnecessary bureaucratic procedures to the press. Due to the forthcoming elections this year, it is not yet certain that Parliament will adopt the law this year.