02. 04. 2005

HEAVY BREATHING ONLY AFTER MIDNIGHT

BELGRADE, April 2, 2005 – “Female body is so much abused in Serbia that it cannot be tolerated anymore. Messages that promote women in negative context are sent everywhere around you, from television to billboards and newspapers, which directly jeopardize lives of normal families, young people and so on. There are similar pornographic messages in other countries as well, but such concealed or open ‘liberalization’ of hot-lines in Serbia does not exist anywhere else”, said the president of the Parliament’s Trade and Tourism Council, Rajko Baralic. At the yesterday’s meeting with the representatives of the appropriate ministries, Chamber and media, Baralic assessed the current advertising state, saying that only one type of messages in the local market surely needed to be labeled “banned” under the Advertising Bill, not only on television and daily newspapers, but in public places as well. Hotlines and similar contexts should be allowed only in specialized magazines and late night television shows. Serbian Trade Minister Vojin Dimintrijevic noted that the list of prohibited advertisements would be long after adopting of new Advertising Act, which would be coordinated with the European regulations. Our legislation would be somewhat more rigorous in comparison with other European countries, such as France, when it comes to advertising of tobacco and alcohol products. The European Union has a firm standpoint regarding the advertising of any tobacco or alcohol product, which our Ministry of Health strongly supports. “There is a certain dilemma what to ban and at what extent, because many of the major manufacturers are also the sponsors of the big sports and cultural events, thus the organizers would be deprived of any profit”, said Dimintrijevic. “We propose to allow limited advertising of tobacco and alcohol. Those products could be, for example, advertised on billboards but only if they are not located near the school sites, or in print media that have the authorization from the Ministry”, said the Trade Chamber representative Sasa Gajin. He also said that the prohibition of the tobacco and alcohol advertisements could not be applied separately, without other fiscal and educative measures, noting that such ads should be allowed at least for another two and a half years. Zoran Babic from the Association of Electronic Media said, among other things, that the proposed regulations were strict, thus needing transitional solutions in the advertising prohibitions. His colleague Darko Tankosic from the Association noted that “the positive discrimination” for advertising of tobacco, alcohol and medicaments should be allowed, and that these funds could be used for financing the development.