Romania

[RO] New directions for the National Audiovisual Council

IRIS 1996-10:1/32

Nicolas Pélissier

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France (CNRS)

Since September 1995, the National Audiovisual Council (NAC) has adopted a three-prong approach, in line with the recent economic and political developments within the audio-visual sector.Firstly, in view of the local elections of June 1996 and the general elections of November 1996, the NAC made the final additions to existing legislation so as to provide better guarantees for the application of the broad principles laid down by the constitution and the law (equal broadcasting time, regulation of opinion polls, etc.) with regard to broadcasting of electoral campaigns. Romanian and foreign observers of the June 1996 electoral campaign noted that there had been considerable improvement over the February 1992 campaign.The NAC also set out to gain better control over the amazing expansion of the private sector, which it had itself encouraged between 1992 and 1994. New means were granted to the "checking and supervision" section of the regulatory authority, while considerable efforts have been made in drawing up more and more precise programming charters for the radio and television broadcasters. One of the essential goals is the verification of locally-produced programmes and their compliance with current advertising and copyright legislation.The NAC also wanted to take a closer look at legislation governing programmes transmitted over the rapidly growing cable and satellite network. Some experts claim that this has resulted in a reduction of pirate transmissions of foreign programmes and has encouraged the broadcast of "home-grown" programmes through these new media.