Romania

[RO] Act on the Use of the Romanian Language

IRIS 2005-4:1/28

Mariana Stoican

Journalist, Bucharest

Romania's new Act on the Use of the Romanian Language was published in the parliamentary gazette on 12 November 2004 and entered into force 30 days later.

It had taken several years and numerous amendments for the highly controversial Bill to pass into law in its current and substantially diluted form. Article 1 of the Act provides that any written or spoken Romanian text intended for the public must comply with current grammar and spelling rules. Any public written or spoken text in a foreign language must be accompanied by a Romanian translation or explanation. Article 2 of the Act defines the term "text of public interest" as any text used for an official purpose - whether printed on a poster, displayed, transmitted or spoken in public places or broadcast via the mass media and intended to notify or inform the public or to make them aware of any message with direct or indirect advertising content.

Under Article 3 of the Act, television broadcasts in foreign languages must be subtitled in Romanian. It is further stipulated that simultaneous interpretation is permissible where the pressure of events requires it.

The provisions of the Act do not apply to registered trademarks, texts of a scientific, artistic/literary, cultural or religious nature, or to publications produced entirely or partly in foreign languages, including publications in the languages of ethnic minorities. Also exempt from the rules are programmes that are broadcast radio-electronically on terrestrial frequencies or via satellite and taken up or transmitted on cable networks. Local and regional broadcasters are permitted to transmit sound radio programmes, live broadcasts, sections of programmes with religious or ethnographic content and entertainment programmes in the languages of Romania's national minorities. Sports terms need not be translated.

In the case of printed texts the graphic appearance of the translation into Romanian must be the same as that of the original.