State advertising to be regulated by law in Moldova

The law on advertising will be amended. The parliament’s commission for Culture, education, research, youth, sport and mass media today approved the report on a draft that introduces a new chapter in the law defining the object and content of state advertising, as well as the procedures for allocating public funds for it.

According to the initiative developed by a group of MPs of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), public funds will be allocated based on such criteria as the diversity of media services, editorial independence, topic-related profile, language, and target audience of the media service, compliance with professional and ethical standards, as well as the transparency of the media service's activities, including its sources of funding.

The initiative also introduces the obligation for public entities to develop an annual plan for disseminating public interest messages, which will be published online, as well as to report annually on the expenses and campaigns conducted.

At the same time, advertising providers will also need to publish this data. The monitoring of public procurements in the field will be the responsibility of the Public Procurement Agency.

The draft is part of the efforts to align Moldovan legislation with European norms by partially transposing the EU Regulation on media freedom.