The Emergency ordinance to amend the Law of the Audiovisual, prepared by the government and vehemently contested by the advertising agencies, was approved yesterday. Initially, the document was not included on the list of norms to be discussed in the government meeting of November 27, but was included on the additional agenda instead. This is a surprising move, considering that on November 15th, in a note of the press office of the Government, it was said that the Emergency Ordinance to amend the Law of the Audiovisual "was no longer of actuality".
The project was severely contested before it reached the Government's desk or being officially made public; in fact, it did not even go into a public debate, just like the decisional transparency.
On November 6th, according to a press release published on the gov.ro website, when it comes to normative acts which were supposed to be discussed in that meeting, there was also a proposal to amend and make additions to the Law of the Audiovisual no. 504/2002.
This did not happen, because the draft was remitted to the Ministry of Justice. Later, from the advertising agencies came the information that the Emergency Ordinance would be passed on November 20nd.
One week later, when it all seemed to have been forgotten, the draft was discussed during the government meeting and approved.
Andrei Zaharescu, the spokesperson of the Government, has announced that the Emergency Ordinance passed yesterday comprises three major types of changes, concerning the buying of advertising, the modification of the channel roster by the cable companies and the activity of the National Audiovisual Commission (CNA).
The fiercest arguments concerned the article which concerns the sale of advertising spaces. Two weeks ago, the European Association of Communication Agencies (EACA) reacted to the Emergency Ordinance
