Romania

[RO] New CNA Rules

IRIS 2007-4:1/30

Mariana Stoican

Journalist, Bucharest

New regulations have recently been adopted, amending Decision No. 187 of 3 April 2006 on the Regulatory Code for Audiovisual Content. The new Decision No. 194 (Decizia nr. 194 din 22 februarie 2007 pentru modificarea Deciziei nr. 187 din 3 aprilie 2006 privind Codul de reglementare a conţinutului audiovizual), adopted by the Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (National Audiovisual Council - CNA) on 22 February 2007, includes a redistribution of the proportion of broadcast transmission time that must be allocated to members of the government and opposition parties. Certain groups of people will, in future, be forbidden from making, or presenting, audiovisual programmes, or from appearing regularly as studio guests (Art. 73.1). These include members of parliament, representatives of the government, of central or local administrations or of the President's office, and other office holders within the structure of political parties or their press officers, as well as persons who have publicly announced their intention to stand in local, parliamentary or presidential elections.

Within news programmes, including sports reports, 60% of the airtime set aside for political statements may be allocated to representatives of the governing parties (senators, MPs, representatives of central and local administrations) and 40% to representatives of the parliamentary opposition, independent MPs, parties not represented in parliament and their local representatives (Art. 74.1). Under Art. 74.2, governing parties and the opposition should be equally represented in televised debates.

For the purposes of accurate information and in order to guarantee the free formation of opinion, programme makers must take into account the size of the parliamentary representation of each party and the importance of the subject under discussion (Art. 74.3). The transmission time mentioned in Art. 74.1 does not include airtime allocated to the Prime Minister (on occasions when he represents Romania at official events), nor that made available for announcements concerning natural disasters or the outbreak of epidemics, or measures designed to combat them. These exceptions do not prevent the opposition from making known their own views on the events concerned and on the measures taken by the authorities (Art. 74.4).

Art. 75 stipulates that the CNA must check the compliance with the provisions set out in Art. 74.1 and 74.2 on a monthly basis. If the CNA discovers a clear imbalance, they must send a reminder to the broadcaster concerned, urging it to restore the correct balance during the following month. If this reminder is ignored, the sanctions listed in Audiovisual Act No. 504/2002 with subsequent amendments and additions (Legea audiovizualului Nr. 504/2002, cu modificările şi completările ulterioare) are applicable.

The provisions contained in Articles 73, 74 and 75 will enter into force when the CNA decision is published in Part 1 of the Romanian Official Gazette (Monitorul Oficial al Românie, Partea 1).