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22.06.2017
Advertising chaos
1401
Internet-portal ABCTV.kz
The Mazhilis has become entangled in the intricacies of advertising regulation.
More than an hour was spent by the deputies of the Mazhilis to understand what is happening today in the advertising sphere. The package of amendments to the legislation on advertising, which was called to remove existing shortcomings, confused the people's representatives even more.
The Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov, presenting the draft law to the deputies, noted that there are a number of problems in the industry. In particular, "there is no clear state regulation, because of the imperfection of the legislation, local executive bodies apply various law enforcement practices, the authorization system is not systematized, there are questions on administering fees to the budget for distribution and placement of advertising".
Amendments have been submitted for consideration in order to eliminate them. So, the authorized bodies are the Ministry of Economy and the regulatory bodies - the Ministries of information and communications, investment and development, internal affairs, and health care.
"The authorized body in the field of advertising will exercise leadership and cross-sectoral coordination on advertising issues and approve standard rules for the placement of outdoor (visual) advertising.
The regulatory bodies in the field of advertising will guide the individual sectors (media, roads, traffic safety, medicines, dietary supplements and medical equipment) in which advertising activities are carried out", - Mr. Suleimenov explained.
The concept "object of external (visual) advertising" is introduced, and separate regulation of outdoor advertising and advertising itself is introduced. So, outdoor advertising will be regulated by the Law "On Advertising" and the rules for placing outdoor (visual) advertising. The objects of outdoor advertising will be regulated by the Land Code and legislation on architectural, town-planning and construction activities, roads and traffic.
Additional liability is also introduced for violation of legislation in the field of advertising. The current legislation already contains more than 15 bans, including a ban on advertising of electronic casinos and online casinos, the activities of the financial (investment) pyramid, the ban on improper advertising, the ban on broadcasting advertisements on national mourning days on television, radio, and others. It is proposed to add administrative responsibility for specifying the price of the goods not in the national currency when it is sold on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It also introduces responsibility for dishonest, unreliable, unethical and hidden advertising, as well as advertising on days of national mourning on television and radio channels.
"To prevent hidden advertising of alcohol and tobacco, the responsibility for advertising in the form of various events, including prizes drawing, lotteries, aimed at stimulating demand and interest in alcohol products, tobacco and tobacco products, was introduced. However, in order to prevent an increase in the financial burden on entrepreneurs, the sanctions imposed by the Code of Administrative Offenses have not been reviewed", - Mr. Suleimenov added.
Another innovation concerns the spread of social advertising on TV, radio channels. It is proposed to establish a daily volume of social advertising on the obligatory 15 television and radio channels, it should make at least 10 broadcasts in the period from 6:00 to 24:00. At the same time, two outlets during the prime time will be mandatory. Such advertising will be free of charge.
It is interesting that, despite the declared goal of eliminating shortcomings, the draft law does not cover all the gaps. So, the deputies drew attention to the fact that today permission for outdoor advertising on roads is given not even by the state agency, but by the national road operator JSC KazavtoZhol. What surprised the chairman of the Mazhilis Nurlan Nigmatulin.
"How did you get there, road workers, on this subject? What do you do there - approve sketches? You need to build a road in those climatic times that are assigned to you. I asked the chairman of the committee Gulnar Mustakhimovna to bring me, they brought me a whole folder of orders from all your regional subdivisions. Everyone does whatever. They approve sketches. There are such billboards as "Berloga", "Sauna" next to the turn to the district center in the direction of the akimat. Who approves it all? "KazavtoZhol". Why do you need this? "- He asked with a puzzled face.
Deputy Minister for Investment and Development Roman Sklyar explained that such a decision was made several years ago in connection with the creation of regional branches of KazavtoZhol. But, nevertheless, there is a gap, this function really is not needed for road construction, so the officials agreed to eliminate the shortcoming, having transferred the authority in issue of such permits to local executive bodies.
“Supervisory authorities need to exercise their power, and with regard to whoever introduced and approved this rule, and with regard to whoever did all these years. Everyone should do their own thing", - Mr. Nigmatulin replied in a mentor tone.
Deputies were interested in the approach to the placement of social advertising: who will be engaged in the production of commercials, and whether domestic television channels are ready for this. The vice-minister of information and communications Alan Azhibaev assured that they are ready, moreover, they themselves do it, and completely voluntarily.
"Now it is already possible to say with certainty that a new trend appears on television when social videos are born not only by state channels, but also by private ones themselves. At the same time, the ministry is also making efforts, and in the framework of the state information order, we hope that we will receive an influx of additional high-quality social videos that will be broadcast on all compulsory TV and radio channels", - he said.
Speaking about the possible losses of the TV channels, the Vice Minister confidently stated: there will be no losses.
"This will not affect the commercial component of public and private channels, because 20% within an hour of advertising remains on their air, and social videos - this is only an additional moment will be on the air to the channel grid. Therefore, we think that this will just be a positive factor for people to see, in addition to commercial advertising, also social advertising. Moreover, only two clips will appear in the prime time", - he concluded.
There was a stormy discussion of each proposed rule of the draft law. As a result, the speaker of the Chamber summed up the line.
"The very character and the course of the discussion of this bill show a very great significance of the issue under consideration. Indeed, the current situation in the field of outdoor advertising is nothing but chaos. Today we must admit that we do not have a single policy for regulating the advertising market, there is no single policy for regulating advertising activities. This creates difficulties for both the state and business entities that work in this area", - Nurlan Nigmatulin stated.
He cited an example with tax services that do not distinguish between LED screens and billboards, charging the same fee for them. At the same time, state agencies state: someone else has developed these rules, and they simply fulfill them, others promise to correct the rules, but they are not in a hurry to do it.
“We need to make a clear uniform law enforcement practice in respect of payments for advertising, on screens, billboards in different regions. In general, it is necessary to establish uniform rules of work, uniform rules for all participants of advertising business on the part of the state. Then it will be clear. While this is not, we create conditions for unnecessary conversations, for unnecessary violations and so on. (...)At the same time, we hear: representatives of business working in this sphere are turning to deputies. They too can be understood, because the rules are different everywhere, they change constantly. Therefore, it is obvious that here it is necessary to establish order in this area, and before the second reading to us, deputies, it is necessary in close contact and interaction with the developers to create all legal guarantees for the advertising business, conditions for quiet, clear, clear, understandable and state regulation of this sphere", - concluded the chairman of the Mazhilis.
Irina Sevostyanova
