Romania

[RO] Recommendation on the correct use of the Romanian language in commercial communications

IRIS 2016-4:1/24

Eugen Cojocariu

Radio Romania International

On 25 February 2016, the National Audiovisual Council (Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului, CNA) issued Recommendation no. 2/2016 with regard to the correct use of the Romanian language in commercial communications aired by audiovisual media service providers (see IRIS 2011-1/37, IRIS 2012-3:1/31, and IRIS 2014-1/40).

The Recommendation was triggered by more ads aired between November and December 2015 and is based on Article 6 paragraphs 1) to 5) and Article 17 paragraph 1) d) 2) of Audiovisual Law no. 504/2002, republished. These articles of the Audiovisual Law entail the powers of the CNA to issue recommendations, instructions and conduct codes. These powers are accompanied by the interdiction of censorship and of any kind of interference in the editorial independence of the broadcasters and, respectively, the obligation of the Council to ensure the correct use of Romanian and minority languages. The Recommendation is also based on Articles 83 and 102 paragraph 1) of the Audiovisual Code, with regard to the correct use of the Romanian language and, respectively, to the interdiction of adverts which do not observe the legal provisions. The Council recommends the compliance with spelling, punctuation and orthoepy, as well as the morphology and syntax of the Romanian language in commercial communications released in audiovisual programmes. The Council reminds the audiovisual media service providers that audiovisual commercial communications are part of their audiovisual programmes and that they are not exempted from the obligation to comply with the proper use of the Romanian language established by the Romanian Academy.

The CNA considers that the broadcast of audiovisual commercial communications with Romanian language misspellings, orthoepic and morphology errors could have a significant adverse impact on the public, especially on minors, through the repetitive nature of broadcasting (12 minutes during any given hour for commercial broadcasters and 8 minutes per hour for public broadcasters).