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Bill: Advertising Regulation Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Progressive Liberal Party
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: November 2580
Description[?]:
| An Act to establish sensible regulation on the advertising of products and services. Currently there is no single set of regulations on the possible methods and techniques of advertising, and, even though some Cantonal Governments have enacted regulations, they only have the force of secondary legislation as the powers to legislate over the issue is not transferred. The Senate hereby expresses its utmost interest in preserving the freedom of expression also in advertisements, but as long as such campaigns try to influence public opinion, they are required not to be false or misleading. Thus, this whole Act is just an elaboration on that ideal. 1.- There shall be a set of rules governing the techniques that can and cannot be used in advertisement campaigns. Such rules will be based in the main ideal that an advertisement must not use any falsehoods, nor any misleading true data. However, such rules must keep freedom of expression to a maximum. The Cildanian Supreme Court shall see to it that these principles are respected, both when the rules are made and applied. a) In particular, the rules shall establish the ban on subliminal messages, either auditive or visual. Also, there shall be a minimum text size for visual advertisements, and a sensible maximum velocity at which text can flow through the viewport in video/TV/movie advertisements. b) Additionally, the rules shall make it explicit which kind of advertisements need to include which data. As an example, any advertisement offering any kind of lease, financing, mortgage, etc. shall include the equivalent annual interest rate. 2.- The set of rules shall be proposed by the Ministry of Trade and need to be passed by a Resolution of the Senate of Cildania. The Ministry might, at any time, propose a modification of the rules, with the same procedure. The Senate is empowered to request the yearly review of the rules, to which the Ministry must oblige. 3.- In complying with the principle of freedom of expression, there shall be no form of previous censure or review of advertisements to be broadcast, except if they are voluntarily submitted to that effect. 4.- If the Government finds a certain advertisement not to follow the rules, it shall send a written warning to all involved parties (usually the creator, the advertised company and the broadcaster). If the advertisement is still being broadcast after one week and/or negotiations with the involved parties are infructuous, the Ministry of Trade shall be empowered to take the advertisement down. 5.- A company whose advertisement is taken down shall have the right to take the matter to the courts, which are to decide as fast as possible. If the advertisement is found to be compliant to the rules, the court shall make the Government pay a fine to the involved parties as a compensation for the related income loss. 6.- The Senate shall be empowered to request the Government to initiate the procedure outlined in section 5. The Government, however, is not bound by such a Senate resolution. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The government's policy on advertising
Old value:: All advertising is permitted.
Current: Only governmental organisation advertising is permitted.
Proposed: Only advertising that meets certain set standards is permitted.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 03:43:18, May 20, 2008 CET | From | Progressive Liberal Party | To | Debating the Advertising Regulation Act |
| Message | We the Progressive Liberals firmly believe in freedom, and the base of freedom is information. Thus, we think that advertisements need to be subject to a basic set of rules to ensure that they do not incur on falsehoods, or use misleading techniques in order to lure people into unexpected outcomes. |
| Date | 21:48:03, May 22, 2008 CET | From | Progressive Liberal Party | To | Debating the Advertising Regulation Act |
| Message | Sigh. Maybe we're just asking too much of the honorable Senators representing the JLC and the CPP, but we'd like to know why this bill is unacceptable to them. We would, of course, rather have known _before_ putting it to a vote, as it was open to debate for like a year, but no-one minded to post a single comment. Foolish of us to believe that it meant acquiescence. |
| Date | 16:39:31, May 26, 2008 CET | From | Justice League of Cildania | To | Debating the Advertising Regulation Act |
| Message | Apologies for your wasted effort, but false advertising is already covered in our criminal codes. (OOC I usually just check Messages, meaning I only see debates where at least one debate post exists, not just a description. If you wish for debate please add a debate comment to your bills. If you already did that I am sorry I missed it.) |
| Date | 22:38:47, May 26, 2008 CET | From | Progressive Liberal Party | To | Debating the Advertising Regulation Act |
| Message | OOC: Er, I believe the first message (the one starting with "We the Progressive Liberals") was posted as soon as the bill was issued. However, maybe I've been a bit stern, sorry. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||
| yes |
Total Seats: 75 | |||
| no | Total Seats: 84 | |||
| abstain | Total Seats: 16 |
| Random fact: "Spamming", or the indiscriminate posting of unsolicited messages, is not allowed. |
| Random quote: "Colonialism or imperialism, as the slave system of the West is called, is not something that is just confined to England or France or the United States. The interests in this country are in cahoots with the interests in France and the interests in Britain. It's one huge complex or combine, and it creates what's known not as the American power structure or the French power structure, but an international power structure. This international power structure is used to suppress the masses of dark-skinned people all over the world and exploit them of their natural resources." Malcolm X |