29 November 2018
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Parliament’s Committee for economy, budget and finance postponed the review of the draft Law on Advertising for the second reading, so that this document, the importance of which is also mentioned by the European Parliament recent Resolution on the implementation of the EU Association Agreement with Moldova, will no longer be voted by the current Parliament. Even the authors don’t know why the draft was postponed, while the experts believe that it is intended to exclude certain provisions requiring to strengthen field’s transparency.
The draft Law on Advertising was included on Committee’s agenda for Thursday, 29 November, but its Chair Stefan Creanga proposed to postpone its review, claiming a number of amendments. Later on, Stefan Creanga told Media-azi.md that the MPs had not reached a consensus and that there had not been enough votes to support the document. He said that the next Parliament would return to this draft.
Vladimir Hotineanu, Chair of the Committee for Mass-media and one of the MPs who signed the draft, was surprised that the document was postponed and said he did not know the reasons: ‘I don’t know, I have the faintest idea. It’s hard for me to answer... We have the co-report developed, but I don’t know why things were delayed’.
Vladimir Hotineanu’s take is that this is a great draft law and is confident that the future Parliament will vote it. ‘It’s a great draft. Even public hearings were held. I don’t know why it was postponed. Maybe the Committee has been busy reviewing the budgets. Since it was voted in the first reading, it means that it remains in the legislative process and will be adopted by the future Parliament’, Vladimir Hotineanu believes.
However, media expert Eugeniu Ribca, one of the authors of the draft law, assumes that this delay is actually trying to exclude certain provisions requiring to strengthen the transparency of the advertising sector. ‘I guess that draft’s provisions requiring to strengthen the transparency of both political and commercial advertising are under discussion. Although draft’s provisions were to enter into force nine months after the date of publication of the law in the Official Gazette, a regime of transparency, division between commercial and political advertising and messages of public interest was to be established. By delaying the adoption of the draft law, I guess that MPs want to remove these new requirements’, Eugeniu Ribca believes.
The new draft Law on Advertising, developed by experts of the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) and introduced as a legislative initiative by three MPs – Speaker Adrian Candu, Vladimir Hotineanu and Corneliu Mihalache – was approved by the Parliament on 11 October during the first reading. The document aims to improve the legal framework for advertising, aligning it to the European law.
It includes provisions regulating the establishment and implementation of the legal regime for messages of public interest, requirements for ensuring transparency on the advertising market, self-regulation in the field of advertising and political advertising during the extra-electoral period, etc.
To this end, the draft provides for the establishment and implementation of the legal regime for political advertising during the extra-electoral period, which currently doesn’t exist. The document sets forth who cannot be a provider of political advertising, as well as the fact that the payment for broadcasting political advertising can only be made by bank transfer.
Note that the European Parliament (EP) recent Resolution on the implementation of the EU Association Agreement with Moldova highlights the importance to adopt the new Law on Advertising.
The draft Law on Advertising was included on Committee’s agenda for Thursday, 29 November, but its Chair Stefan Creanga proposed to postpone its review, claiming a number of amendments. Later on, Stefan Creanga told Media-azi.md that the MPs had not reached a consensus and that there had not been enough votes to support the document. He said that the next Parliament would return to this draft.
Vladimir Hotineanu, Chair of the Committee for Mass-media and one of the MPs who signed the draft, was surprised that the document was postponed and said he did not know the reasons: ‘I don’t know, I have the faintest idea. It’s hard for me to answer... We have the co-report developed, but I don’t know why things were delayed’.
Vladimir Hotineanu’s take is that this is a great draft law and is confident that the future Parliament will vote it. ‘It’s a great draft. Even public hearings were held. I don’t know why it was postponed. Maybe the Committee has been busy reviewing the budgets. Since it was voted in the first reading, it means that it remains in the legislative process and will be adopted by the future Parliament’, Vladimir Hotineanu believes.
However, media expert Eugeniu Ribca, one of the authors of the draft law, assumes that this delay is actually trying to exclude certain provisions requiring to strengthen the transparency of the advertising sector. ‘I guess that draft’s provisions requiring to strengthen the transparency of both political and commercial advertising are under discussion. Although draft’s provisions were to enter into force nine months after the date of publication of the law in the Official Gazette, a regime of transparency, division between commercial and political advertising and messages of public interest was to be established. By delaying the adoption of the draft law, I guess that MPs want to remove these new requirements’, Eugeniu Ribca believes.
The new draft Law on Advertising, developed by experts of the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) and introduced as a legislative initiative by three MPs – Speaker Adrian Candu, Vladimir Hotineanu and Corneliu Mihalache – was approved by the Parliament on 11 October during the first reading. The document aims to improve the legal framework for advertising, aligning it to the European law.
It includes provisions regulating the establishment and implementation of the legal regime for messages of public interest, requirements for ensuring transparency on the advertising market, self-regulation in the field of advertising and political advertising during the extra-electoral period, etc.
To this end, the draft provides for the establishment and implementation of the legal regime for political advertising during the extra-electoral period, which currently doesn’t exist. The document sets forth who cannot be a provider of political advertising, as well as the fact that the payment for broadcasting political advertising can only be made by bank transfer.
Note that the European Parliament (EP) recent Resolution on the implementation of the EU Association Agreement with Moldova highlights the importance to adopt the new Law on Advertising.