Law on Radio and Television
General regulations
In Bulgaria, according to the Radio and Television Act, Article 75, advertising must not involve or encourage discrimination, it must not encourage behaviour that endangers health, safety or the environment, it must not harm or mislead the interests of consumers and it must not violate human dignity.
State-funded broadcasters are not allowed to show more than 15 minutes of advertising per day for Bulgarian National Television - BNT and 6 minutes for Bulgarian National Radio - BNR. This restriction does not apply to private TV stations such as BTV or Nova. They are mainly financed through advertising revenues. Both public and private TV stations can broadcast a maximum of twelve minutes of advertising per hour.
Furthermore, the Broadcasting Act stipulates that advertising as such must be clearly distinguishable from editorial content and easily identifiable. This is applied in practice, for example, by means of acoustic and visual signals before and after the interruption of advertising.
Regulations with special consideration of children
Under the law, there is a higher level of protection with regard to advertising to children. For example, television programmes for children cannot be interrupted by advertising at intervals shorter than 30 minutes. Advertisements must be broadcast separately from editorial content for children and young people if they relate to potentially harmful products. Alcoholic beverages may also not be advertised specifically to children and adolescents.
The latest changes by the Act amending the Radio and Television Act, are aimed at implementing the provisions of Directive 2018/1808 amending the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. The new points are aimed at strengthening measures to protect children against harmful content online, in video-on-demand and from inappropriate audiovisual commercial communications, but also at regulating the services of video sharing platforms. The new law covers not only video sharing platforms, but also video-on-demand and audiovisual commercial messages on websites. Thus, the legal provisions under which Council of Electronic Media (CEM) controls the electronic environment will also apply to video content sites. They will therefore have to comply with the same advertising content rules as media service providers.
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Council of Electronic Media (CEM)
CEM is a regulatory body and among its main functions are the protection of the public interest and ensuring a safe environment for the children. CEM follows closely if the media (mostly private television channels) observe the stipulations, related to children protection in the Radio and Television Act.
National Council for Self-Regulation (NCSR)
The National Council for Self-Regulation (NCSR) is the non-governmental self-regulatory body of the advertising industry. Its task is to ensure that legally permitted advertising does not cross ethical boundaries. Its objectives include promoting responsible action and eliminating complaints in the advertising industry. Members of the public themselves can point out statements and content that are deemed inappropriate (for all age groups of the society) and lodge complaints.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to use reliable control mechanisms or technical measures because of the large number of media and the confusing transnational, mainly electronic, distribution channels. On the other hand, protective measures are becoming necessary due to the increasing amount of content related to the protection of children and young people.
Exercise
Get familiar with relevant laws and control bodies regulations.
Answer the following questions:
- What is the legal frame regarding child media protection?
- What are the main stipulations related to advertisement and child protection in the Radio and Television Act?
- Which is the main regulatory body, related to observing the child protection stipulations in the Radio and Television Act?
- Can citizens file complaints at National Council for Self-Regulation regarding inappropriate content related to children?
What you learn in this course
- You'll be able to show which national legal frameworks exist with regard to advertising and where they can be found.
- You'll be able to name the bodies that monitor compliance with these framework conditions.
- You'll be able to list the tasks and contents of the control bodies.
- You'll be able to justify the importance of controlling the advertising industry for the age group of 2-6 year olds.
Get ready: Tips for MediaParent consultants
Visit the websites of your national control bodies and institutions for the regulation of advertising content, we have already linked the most important ones in our resources section. Check to what extent information material for parents about the tasks and the work of the institutions is available for download or, if applicable, can be ordered free of charge as a brochure. Provide parents with information material so that they can deal with this topic even more intensively at home.
Raise awareness of the legal regulation of advertising content in your parents' evening. Show parents where and how they can take action against violations.
All modules from this course:
