Romania

[RO] Conclusions on "Reality Shows"

IRIS 2003-7:1/24

Mariana Stoican

Journalist, Bucharest

In a communiqué released on 15 May 2003, the Romanian Consiliul Na ional al Audiovizualului (National Audio-visual Council ­ CNA), the regulatory authority for electronic media in Romania, published its conclusions on the recent monitoring of the " Big Brother" reality show currently being shown on the private-sector TV channel Prima TV. The CNA members concluded that this kind of programme promoted behaviour that could have a negative influence on viewers because it violated standards of morality.

The communiqué explained that Big Brother type reality shows should also fulfil the requirements set out in Article 7 of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, which stipulated that human dignity and fundamental human rights should be respected in television programmes. Consequently, family values and good morals should be upheld in accordance with the Romanian Audio-visual Act as well as European legislation. This was true irrespective of agreements signed between the TV producers and show participants. The regulatory authority therefore proposed the following measures for future episodes of the show: the producers should make a number of locations available to the occupants of the " Big Brother House" several times a day, where they would be unobserved. The CNA also recommended that the producers reverse the system of voting out individual participants so that votes were cast for rather than against the people concerned.

On account of previous breaches of human dignity and fundamental human rights in the Big Brother show, the CNA issued a public reprimand against the commercial broadcaster Prima TV on 16 May 2003.