The Bill (Reg. No. 1044) obliges the mass media advertisement distributors, whose activity is not funded from the State or local budget, to put up the social advertisement of public authority and local self-government bodies, public associations, in the amount of not less than 4 per cent of airtime or printed space, allocated for advertisement, free of charge.
The Committee members upheld the idea of granting benefits to the social advertisement. However, they also expressed a number of remarks to the Bill.
Thus, the People´s Deputies believe that Article 6 should be specified, especially the amount "of not less than 4 per cent of airtime or printed space, allocated for advertisement". The Bill fails to envisage the implementation mechanism in case the mass media does not receive social advertisement at all. In the said case the private mass media can sustain losses.
As regards Article 7 of the Bill, the participants of the meeting propose to specify it by introducing the benefit for the cultural establishments in the form of free payment. The cultural establishments, including the Ministry of Culture, can not afford social advertisement at the large commercial channels, owing to the finance on leftovers.