Audiovisual Directive: let's not change the solutions that work

Adopted after many years of negotiations and implemented with some delay by some Member States, the Audiovisual Directive brought the expected results. The summary of the European Commission shows that this directive has reduced the amount of advertising of alcoholic products, and also allowed greater protection of children from ads promoting harmful to their health products, including sugars and fats. In this regard it assured a better protection of the European consumers than the solutions proposed in the United States, where the advertising market is completely unregulated. That is why the EU should not rush into a revision of the existing Audiovisual Directive, but to focus on the full implementation of its provisions - adjudged the MEPs by accepting Piotr Borys' report on the evaluation of the implementation of the Audiovisual Directive.

"The regulation of the media in Europe was a success. Some Member States had a delay in the implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, however, the implementation of its key objectives can be assessed positively, including a time-limit of 12 minutes for ads per hour, which is a good compromise for both viewers and producers who finance programs from advertising revenues. The hate speech was eliminated from the television. For example in France broadcasting of the Al Aqsa satellite channel, which had been broadcasting an anti-Semitic content was stopped", said Piotr Borys. "Thanks to the directive, we can effectively eliminate messages that sow discrimination based on age, sex, and religion", he added.

This does not mean that the EU can stop its efforts. This is why Piotr Borys calls to take into account the needs of the visually and hearing impaired people by adjusting the television equipment, such as remote control or set-top boxes, to their requirements.

He also draws attention to the challenges of the fast developing technologies such as hybrid TV that can put into question the validity of certain provisions of the directive. "We need the distance and time to answer the question about the impact of the television on the media market. In the report we call on the Commission to monitor closely the development of hybrid TV and to answer how to regulate audiovisual media market in the context of hybrid TV. Only after a thorough analysis, we could return to the question of amending the existing provisions", said Piotr Borys.

He also noted the need for the implementation of media literacy trainings to the education programs and further implementation of the provisions of the directive which allow for the promotion of European Cinematographic Productions. "Currently, the directive imposes on the media the duty to assign destiny average of 10 percent of airtime for independent producers from Europe. We would wish however for the Member States to go beyond the minimum set by EU law", concluded Piotr Borys.