Linguistic legislation in advertising is not respected, author of amendments

The amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, which institute penalties for breaking the linguistic legislation when broadcasting advertisements, are not implemented, said Liberal MP Valeriu Munteanu, who formulated the given changes. “Things haven’t improved. Advertisements that do not meet the law continue to be placed in the capital city and all over Moldova. This shows that they didn’t discuss, didn’t impose fines and didn’t issue warnings,” Valeriu Munteanu stated for Info-Prim Neo. He said that he is preparing a legislative initiative that will be aimed at making the inspection bodies that impose fines for the violation of the law more responsible. In a response to an inquiry made by Info-Prim Neo News Agency, the Ministry of the Interior says that only one fine for not obeying the linguistic legislation in advertising has been imposed until now. “In the first 11 months of this year, the police have drawn up 175 reports on administrative offenses. Only one of them is based on the article that regulates the placement of advertisements in Romanian. The fine was 10,000 lei,” said the Ministry. It also said that under the law, the implementation of the legislation on advertising is overseen by the state antimonopoly and competition watchdog that, for its part, must inform the police. According to the amendments that came into force in July, the advertisements, notices and other visual announcements will be written in the official language and, if need be, will be translated into Russian, while in the settlements of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia – in Gagauz or Russian. The letters in the advertisements written in the official language mustn’t be smaller than in the adverts written in other languages. Fines of up to 10,000 lei are imposed for violating these provisions.