Romania

[RO] Sanctions for Infringements of the Advertising Rules

IRIS 2012-2:1/32

Eugen Cojocariu

Radio Romania International

On 14 December 2011 the Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (National Council for Electronic Media - CNA) issued sanctions on several Romanian television broadcasters for breaching the audiovisual rules with regard to the limits of advertising (see inter alia IRIS 2010-1/38, IRIS 2010-8/42, IRIS 2011-1/44 and IRIS 2011-6/31).

The Romanian public broadcaster TVR received a public warning and the commercial television stations Antena 1, PRO TV, Prima TV and KANAL D were fined RON 100,000 (EUR 23,040) each for breaches of Art. 35 (1) of Legea audiovizualului nr. 504/2002, cu modificările şi completările ulterioare (Audiovisual Law no. 504/2002, with further modifications and completions), which determines the maximum limit for advertising and teleshopping of 8 minutes/hour for public and 12 minutes/hour for commercial stations. According to Art. 35 (2) the provisions of Art. 35 (1) do not apply to self-promotion, sponsoring and product placement.

The sanctions are among the highest ones ever issued by the CNA. The Council found that, when accumulated, in October TVR broadcast 15 minutes of advertising more than allowed, Antena 1 120 minutes, PRO TV 170 minutes, Prima TV 180 minutes, and KANAL D 107 minutes more than the legally permitted limit. According to Art. 90 (2) of the Audiovisual Law, fines range from RON 10,000 (EUR 2,300) to RON 200,000 (EUR 46,080).

The CNA issued in 2011 a total of 249 sanctions for infringements of audiovisual legislation. The most frequent breaches were made regarding the: protection of human dignity and the right to one’s image; protection of children; securing of correct information and pluralism; advertising, teleshopping and sponsoring rules; provisions concerning the rebroadcast notification; must carry principle and political advertising.


References






Related articles

IRIS 2010-1:1/38 [RO] Sanctions for Exceeding TV Advertising Times

IRIS 2010-8:1/42 [RO] Electronic Media - Sanctions and Processes

IRIS 2011-1:1/44 [RO] Electronic Media Sanctions for Sensitive Cases

IRIS 2011-6:1/31 [RO] CNA Annual Report 2010

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.