Romania

[RO] Amendment of CNA Decision On Local Programmes

IRIS 2007-2:1/31

Mariana Stoican

Journalist, Bucharest

On 1 January 2007, Decision No. 401 of 26 June 2006 of the Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (Romanian Broadcasting Regulatory Authority - CNA) on the transmission of local programmes entered into force (Decizia Nr. 401 din 26 iunie 2006 privind difuzarea programelor locale de radiodifuziune), replacing Decision No. 654 of 22 November 2005 (Decizia Consiliului Naţional al Audiovizualului 654 din 22 noiembrie 2005 privind difuzarea programelor locale şi a programelor retransmise cu modificările ulterioare, publicată în Monitorul Oficial al României, Partea I, Nr. 1081 din 30 noiembrie 2005 ; see IRIS 2006-2: 19).

CNA Decision No. 401 provides that regional and local broadcasters in cities with more than 150,000 inhabitants must broadcast at least 30 minutes of local programming between six am and midnight every day (Art. 2). In cities with between 50,000 and 150,000 inhabitants, at least 20 minutes of local programming must be shown in the same time period (Art. 3). Local broadcasters in municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants must offer local programmes with a combined weekly duration of at least 35 minutes, broadcast between the hours of six am and midnight (Art. 4).

Article 5 of the Decision, which entered into force on 1 January 2007, also gave broadcasting licence holders the right to rebroadcast information programmes produced by other broadcasters with a cumulative duration of up to 60 minutes per day. However, the CNA amended this provision only five days after its entry into force at its public meeting of 5 January 2007, making it possible for information programmes lasting more than 60 minutes to be rebroadcast (e.g. news programmes broadcast in Romanian by the BBC). As a result of this draft amendment, the maximum duration of information programmes that can be rebroadcast by local broadcasters will be increased from 60 minutes to three hours per day.