More than twenty years after Abdelaziz Rehabi’s bill was blocked in parliament, an advertising law will be promulgated before the end of the current year. This announcement was made on Thursday by the Minister of Communication, Ammar Belhimer, following the work of a workshop devoted to electronic media.
According to the government spokesperson, this is special legislation that will take into account several aspects, in particular those relating to the monopoly in the distribution of advertising, the specific features of Algerian society and economic issues. This will thus ensure the distribution of advertising according to the rules of commerciality and economic logic.
“This new text will have to participate in creating a general framework which will watch over and organize the advertising market, and none can monopolize more than 40% of advertising”, will support the minister, who will recall, for the occasion, that this legislation is ” part of the reform program decided by the Head of the State.
If the law promised by Belhimer were to be passed, the monopoly of Anep would be definitively lifted. Until then, public enterprises and institutions are required to go through the state agency to insert an advertising poster in a medium that the agency chooses.
With the enactment of this law, public advertisers and institutions will have the freedom to choose the media to insert their ads, because the advertising bonanza of the ANEP was used by the government as a means of pressure on “recalcitrant” newspapers. “.
The Minister of Communication will also announce the setting up soon of a National Press Council (written and electronic) which will replace the stillborn body provided for by the Information Law of 2012, the Regulatory authority for the print media, in this case.
“We have planned, for this purpose, the installation of three systems. The first system will be responsible for monitoring the printing operation and the distribution of advertising. The second, linked to ethics and professional conduct, will assign the mission of mediation and arbitration for the settlement of conflicts inherent in the practice of the profession instead of resorting to justice.
The third committee will carry out the mission related to the development of the professional journalist card. ” He also pledged to clean up the information sector of those he describes as “extra-professional forces”, by announcing the drafting of the law specific to the electronic press.
