The ban on posting, distributing and broadcasting political advertisements should be reviewed, said experts of Promo-LEX Association. They warn that the limitation of the right to place political ads during the electoral period by other providers and distributors than the initiative group and the electoral contender violates the right to freedom of expression. The provision saying the message of public interest can be compiled, ordered and promoted only by public entities should also be revised as other subjects are limited, like Promo-LEX is as it designs and promotes messages to urge the people to go and vote at almost each election, IPN reports.

The regulations were drafted by the Central Election Commission based on the new law on advertising that took effect on January 8, 2023. “These are new regulations that are very complex in parts. We must make sure they will be understood by all the involved players and, respectively, will be property implemented. It is very important how they will be put into practice as both the regulations and the law on advertising contain notions that are likely to be easily mixed up,” the Association’s program director Nicolae Panfil stated in an event.

According to the experts of Promo-LEX, the notion of political advertising that is regulated in the law on advertising should be used, while political advertisements should be delimited depending on the periods during which they are broadcast – electoral period or non-electoral period (outside elections).

Promo-LEX noted the draft regulations should be reviewed so as to enable private individuals and legal entities to distribute political ads (promotion/support or disagreeing ones), including by stipulating the obligations and methods of reporting the costs incurred for distributing political aids.

As to advertising in the media, Promo-LEX recommends reducing the maximum space allocated for political advertisements in public periodicals (in each number and/or additionally), both in the electoral period and outside it, from 30% to 20%. The limit of 50% on advertising space should be excluded for private periodicals that, in accordance with the law on advertising, individually decide the advertising space.

As regards advertising posters, Promo-LEX said the limit of 10% per provider of advertising space should be reviewed as it is not clear how the given provision will be implemented. It also seems hard to implement, primarily in small localities, the ban on placing advertising posters within 100 meters from the electoral authorities. This ban should be reviewed so as to allow placing such posters until Friday before election day.