Romania

[RO] Electronic Media - Sanctions and Processes

IRIS 2010-8:1/42

Eugen Cojocariu

Radio Romania International

On 27 July 2010 the Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (National Council for Electronic Media - CNA) imposed sanctions on 10 TV stations and one radio station broadcasting in Romania for having broken the Audiovisual Code rules when covering the death of a Romanian star, the singer Mădălina Manole, who committed suicide on 14 July 2010.

The CNA considered the broadcasters had broken the Codul de reglementare a conţinutului audiovivzual (Regulatory Code for Audiovisual Content) rules with regard to the protection of children, human dignity and of the right to one’s own image, in news programmes and talk shows about the death of the artist (see inter alia IRIS 2010-7: 1/33, IRIS 2009-10: 17/24 and IRIS 2009-6: 17/28).

A fine of RON 10,000 (about EUR 2,350 was imposed on the commercial TV station Antena; fines of RON 7,500 (EUR 1,765) each on the commercial stations Antena 3 and Realitatea TV and fines of RON 5,000 (EUR 1,175) were each imposed on the public channel TVR 1 and the commercial Kanal D. Public warnings were imposed on the commercial TV channels B1 TV, Naţional TV, OTV, Prima TV and Pro TV and the commercial radio station Realitatea FM.

The CNA imposed a total of 240 sanctions on broadcasters for breaches of the audiovisual law between 1 January and 30 July 2010 (83 fines totaling RON 1,033,000 (EUR 243,000), 156 public warnings and a decision of 10 minutes’ prime time broadcast interruption of a commercial TV station).

Most breaches were related to the protection of children, human dignity and the right to one’s own image, correct information and pluralism of opinions, sponsoring, advertisement and teleshopping regulations, broadcasting programmes not included in the approved schedule and not broadcasting the must-carry programmes.

Further, the CNA stated on 5 July 2010 that it had won 191 (94%) of the 203 proceedings in which it was sued for sanctions it imposed between January 2005 and June 2010. 13 proceedings won by the Council are now before the Supreme Court for the final proceedings.