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Home > TV > Information for TV Broadcasting Industry > Broadcast Codes > Ofcom Broadcasting Code > TV Without Frontiers
Appendix 2 - Extracts from the Television Without Frontiers Directive (89/552/EEC), as amended by (97/36/EC)
Extracts from TWF
Article 1
For the purposes of this Directive:
- “television advertising” means any form of announcement broadcast whether in return for payment or other similar consideration or broadcast for self-promotional purposes by a public or private undertaking in connection with a trade, business, craft or profession in order to promote the supply of goods or services, including immovable property, rights and obligations, in return for payment;
- “surreptitious advertising” means the representation in words or pictures of goods, services, the name, the trademark or the activities of a producer of goods or a provider of services in programmes when such representation is intended by the broadcaster to serve advertising and might mislead the public as to its nature. Such representation is considered to be intentional in particular if it is done in return for payment or for similar consideration;
- “sponsorship” means any contribution made by a public or private undertaking not engaged in television broadcasting activities or in the production of audio-visual works, to the financing of television programmes with a view to promoting its name, its trade mark, its image, its activities or its products.
Article 10
- Television advertising and teleshopping shall be readily recognisable as such and kept quite separate from other parts of the programme service by optical and/or acoustic means.
- Surreptitious advertising and teleshopping shall be prohibited.
Article 17
- Sponsored television programmes shall meet the following requirements:
- the content and scheduling of sponsored programmes may in no circumstances be influenced by the sponsor in such a way as to affect the responsibility and editorial independence of the broadcaster in respect of programmes;
- they must be clearly identified as such by the name and/or logo of the sponsor at the beginning and/or the end of the programmes;
- they must not encourage the purchase or rental of the products or services of the sponsor or a third party, in particular by making special promotional references to those products or services.
- Television programmes may not be sponsored by undertakings whose principal activity is the manufacture or sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products.
- Sponsorship of television programmes by undertakings whose activities include the manufacture or sale of medicinal products and medical treatment may promote the name or the image of the undertaking but may not promote specific medicinal products or medical treatments available only on prescription in the Member State within whose jurisdiction the broadcaster falls.
- News and current affairs programmes may not be sponsored.
Article 18
- For the purposes of this Article [relating to the proportion of transmission time permitted for advertising], advertising does not include:
- public service announcements and charity appeals broadcast free of charge.
-
announcements made by the broadcaster in connection with its own programmes and ancillary products directly derived from those programmes;
Article 22
- Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that television broadcasts by broadcasters under their jurisdiction do not include any programmes which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors, in particular programmes that involve pornography or gratuitous violence.
- The measures provided for in paragraph 1 shall also extend to other programmes which are likely to impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors, except where it is ensured, by selecting the time of the broadcast or by any technical measure, that minors in the area of transmission will not normally hear or see such broadcasts.
- Furthermore, when such programmes are broadcast in un-encoded form Member States shall ensure that they are preceded by an acoustic warning or are identified by the presence of a visual symbol throughout their duration.
Article 22a
Member States shall ensure that broadcasts do not contain any incitement to hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion or nationality.
Article 23
- Without prejudice to other provisions adopted by the Member States under civil, administrative or criminal law, any natural or legal person, regardless of nationality, whose legitimate interests, in particular reputation and good name, have been damaged by an assertion of incorrect facts in a television programme must have a right of reply or equivalent remedies. Members States shall ensure that the actual exercise of the right of reply or equivalent remedies is not hindered by the imposition of unreasonable terms or conditions. The reply shall be transmitted within a reasonable time subsequent to the request being substantiated and at a time and in a manner appropriate to the broadcast to which the request refers.
- A right to reply or equivalent remedies shall exist in relation to all broadcasters under the jurisdiction of a Member State .
- Member Sates shall adopt the measures needed to establish the right of reply or the equivalent remedies and shall determine the procedure to be followed for the exercise thereof. In particular, they shall ensure that a sufficient time span is allowed and that the procedures are such that the right or equivalent remedies can be exercised appropriately by natural or legal persons residence or established in other Members States.
- An application for exercise of the right of a reply or the equivalent remedies may be rejected if such a reply is not justified according to the conditions laid down in paragraph 1, would involve a punishable act, would render the broadcaster liable to civil law proceedings or would transgress standards of public decency.
- Provision shall be made for procedures whereby disputes as to the exercise of the right of reply or the equivalent remedies can be subject to judicial review.
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