prijava
SARAJEVO, November 13 (FENA) - Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a comprehensive law on advertising that would adequately regulate this field. Different laws and regulations, which primarily regulate other areas, and are partly related to advertising, are not harmonized and in some segments are even contradictory, it was pointed out today at the debate held in Sarajevo, "Regulating the advertising market in BiH".
Secretary-general of the association "BH Journalists" Borka Rudić pointed out that the transparency of advertising of public entities, media owners, election campaigns, were only part of the issues that have been tried to be solved by various uncoordinated laws and by-laws.
“Many subordinated areas that directly or indirectly concern the advertising market are completely unregulated (internet, new media, media financing, discount on advertising prices, etc.).
In addition to this, although there is a complete absence of a specialized and focused law, at the same time there is saturation with legislation that is not accompanied by level of awareness of judicial or executive power,” said Rudić.
At this point, it is extremely demanding and discouraging to enter the process of searching for advertising information for public companies, political parties and other public entities.
As the director of the marketing agency "Fabrika" Senad Zaimović emphasized, it is impossible to find information about an individual company, one public entity or a media outlet at one place, let alone an overview of marketing practices for the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“It is therefore necessary to increase the availability of data on these financial relations,” Zaimović emphasized.
Rudić said that all stakeholders should insist on legal solutions that will cover these issues in a simple and uniform manner, and that the legal framework must be clear, ensure a high level of legal protection.
She added that the law should be there to regulate and self-regulate, among other things, it is necessary to increase the transparency of advertising information, in particular, the public sector advertising.
Rudić pointed out that the best solution would be a single database, where information on these and similar activities could be found in one place and in a simplified procedure.
Such a database would enable all of us to determine whether certain public companies and public institutions have preferences towards particular media outlets and whether these preferences are in any way justified or are indicative of corruptive activities.
The participants also noted that if a single database is established, it should be within the competence of the Communications Regulatory Agency and/or the Press Council or some other umbrella organization.
Media research, audience surveys and advertising monitoring must be carried out within an independent body of the industry, with clear rules of financing and supervision.
The "Media and Public Reputation" project has been initiated with the aim of promoting the transparency of media ownership and lawful forms of financing of media and advertising in BiH
It is funded by the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and implemented by a consortium comprised of the association BH Journalists, Mediacentar Foundation, the Council for the press and Online Media in BiH and a non-governmental organization ‘JaBiHEU’.
(FENA) S. R.
