After the law on advertising was adopted in 1997, the reality in the Republic of Moldova has changed. This fact was taken into account by a group of experts who drafted a new bill on advertising that is now being examined by the parliamentary group for improving the legislation on the mass media. In an interview for the portal media-azi.md, media expert Eugeniu Rybka, one of the bill authors, said that the authors tried to impose new regulations on political advertising. A chapter of the law is about the messages of public interest or what is now known as social advertising, IPN reports.

The authors suggest instituting a mechanism on state intervention in the area of messages of public interest, including by providing financing. “For example, we envisioned the creation of a Public Interest Council that will be made up of representatives of particular state bodies who will work out an annual or multiannual plan for disseminating messages of public interest for which financing will be earmarked in the state budget,” stated the media expert, noting that the messages of public interest would be broadcast based on public procurement contracts given that it is about public funds.

Changes are also proposed as regards comparative and misleading commercial advertising. The bill that was initiated at the end of 2016 and the start of 2017 contains particular European regulations concerning outdoor advertising. There was included a distinct chapter on the mechanism of authorizing outdoor advertising.

“Namely this chapter aroused debates as to the rights of the local authorities, on the one hand, and the rights of publicity broadcasters, on the other hand. Surely, there are economic interests here, but it’s clear that we need a very well-thought out mechanism as regards street advertising and particular restrictions that should be imposed so that we have an orderly advertising market,” stated Eugeniu Rybka.

A separate chapter refers to self-regulation in the advertising sector, which is for now not practiced in Moldova. As regards state control and penalties in the field, the bill defines the state bodies that will be empowered to check the observance of the legislation on advertising and regulates the transparency of publicity broadcaster so that the owners and managers of a website and those who are responsible for the content of the broadcast publicity are known.