Croatia

[HR] Rulebook on Television Broadcasting Acts for the Protection of Minors

IRIS 2008-7:1/22

Nives Zvonarić

Ministry of Culture, Zagreb, Croatia

On 21 April 2008, the Council of Electronic Media passed a rulebook on television broadcasting regarding the legal protection of minors. This was carried out on the basis of Article 15, paragraph 5, of the Law on Electronic Media.

This rulebook contains regulations that television broadcasters have to obey when broadcasting programmes, the contents of which could pose a threat to the physical, mental and moral upbringing of minors and which are broadcast in un-encoded form. This implies inter alia all types of programmes containing extreme violence, sex scenes, vulgar expressions, and those showing the abuse of hard liquor. It does not include such sequences in educational and scientific programmes, wherein they are explained in an appropriate manner and adjusted to suit the needs of minors. The broadcaster has to provide visual warnings for the audience during the entire broadcast if a programme includes contents unsuitable for minors.

Visual effects have to be integrated into the programme depending upon the category of its content in the following way:

- Category 18: Such programmes must not be broadcast before 23:00h (11 p.m.) The broadcaster is obliged to provide before the programme, for a time interval of at least 10 seconds, the written warning: “The following programme contains scenes which could possibly threaten the physical, mental or moral upbringing of persons younger than 18 years.” The broadcaster is furthermore obliged to ensure that during the entire broadcast of the relevant content there remains on screen a red circle with the written transparent number “18” opposite to the usual broadcaster’s logo.

- Category 15: This programme content must not be broadcast before 22:00h (10 p.m.). The broadcaster is obliged to provide before the programme, for a time interval of at least 10 seconds, the written warning: “The following programme contains scenes which could possibly threaten the physical, mental or moral upbringing of persons younger than 15 years.” The broadcaster is also obliged to ensure that during the entire broadcast of the relevant content there remains on screen an orange circle with the written transparent number “15” opposite to the usual broadcaster’s logo.

- Category 12: This programme content must not be broadcast before 21:00 h (9 p.m.). The broadcaster is obliged to provide before the programme, for a time interval of at least 10 seconds, the written warning: “The following programme content contains scenes which could possibly threaten the physical, mental or moral upbringing of persons younger than 12 years.” The broadcaster is obliged to ensure that during the entire broadcast of the relevant content there remains on screen a green circle with the written transparent number “12” opposite to the usual broadcaster’s logo.

The broadcasters have to brand programme contents, which are published in electronic and printed media together with the title of the programme and the appropriate age categorisation. Trailers, i.e. programme announcements of content with such categories may not contain inappropriate parts of programme content.