VietNamNet Bridge – National Assembly deputies from HCM City, business executives, and city authorities are sceptical about the effectiveness of a proposed advertising law in bringing order to the chaotic industry.

A front of a house is strewn with spam advertisements in the Dam Trau area of Hai Ba Trung District in Ha Noi. The fine for unlicensed advertising is VND20 million (US$950) in the proposed bill on advertising. (Photo: VNS)

A 2001 Decree on Advertisement and related provisions in the laws of Trade, Journalism, and Publishing have also proven ineffective in regulating the advertising market.

The bill will be submitted to the National Assembly later this month but the debate on its contents is still on.

A more practical law would help the advertising industry develop in a healthier manner and benefit the public, participants told the meeting.

The bill's loose regulations could be abused by advertisers, they warned, calling for stricter penalties for violations.

Tran Van Nghiep, director of Sai Gon Advertising Company, suggested that repeated offenders should have their business licences withdrawn.

Chau Quoc Dung, deputy head of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism's inspectorate, said with the maximum fine for a breach being VND40 million (US$1,950) while advertising deals were worth billions of dong, many companies repeatedly violated regulations.

Dung also pointed out that the fine for unlicensed advertising was only VND20 million or much less than the maximum fine for licensed ads in case of violations.

Huynh Cong Hung, head of the social and cultural section of the HCM City People's Council, said while it was easy to spot violations in outdoor advertisements, it was harder to do so on TV or online papers.

The average fines collected annually from advertising on billboards and other outdoor media is around VND6 billion (over $292,000) while it is just around VND380 million (over $18,500) in the case of TV and newspapers.

Delegates asked for an increase in the advertisement cap from 10 per cent to 15 per cent of total content for newspapers and 20 per cent for magazines.

Many also called for regulating the time between commercial breaks on television and penalties for violations.

Tran Vinh Sa of the Department of Information and Communication said commercials should not be allowed on pay TV.

The draft allows 5 per cent of air time for ads, but Sa said it was not fair that viewers had to pay for the TV programmes but still had to be bothered by ads. The bill spells out what activities cannot be advertised and what constitutes violation of cultural and social norms.

Delegates recommended tougher regulations for advertising for medical centres and electronic games and stringent penalties for content, design and size violations in hoardings.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News