French journalists banned from promoting Facebook and Twitter on the air
The French Electronic Media Supervisory Board (Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel) has banned the “optional” mention of Facebook and Twitter on national television and radio. We are talking about the presenter's words like “more information on our twitter” or “look for us on Facebook” and other calls to come to “our page” on this or that third-party network that sounds almost in every television program or are mentioned in a crawl line. Now it is forbidden. The Council’s Resolution refers to Article 9 of the 1992 Decree , which prohibits hidden advertising of goods and services on the electronic media.
According to the logic of the regulator, Facebook and Twitter are commercial companies that profit from their activities, so the constant mention of these services is equal to hidden advertising. In addition, these social services are only one of many similar services, hundreds of social networks, blog hosting sites and microblogging. Thus, the promotion of these two specific names leads to unfair competition, infringing the rights of their competitors.
In general, the ban applies to any third-party commercial services (like Livejournal), just in practice now only Facebook and Twitter are mentioned on all TV channels and on the radio, so the ban will hit them first.
Journalists were allowed to refer to Facebook and Twitter only as specific sources of information, or to mention these companies in the context of any events (for example, if Facebook enters the stock exchange).
')
For journalists, communication with the audience on the Internet has already become part of normal work. Facebook and Twitter were convenient and free services that provided such an opportunity. Now you have to look for other options. Judging by the discussion of this resolution in the French media ( 1 , 2 ), it did not cause any particular protest from the journalists. Indeed, commercial foreign services, hidden advertising - here you can not argue. Another thing is the national French pride, the minimizer (a kind of alternative to the Internet), which at one time was “promoting” on every channel in every program, and this did not cause any protests to anyone.
France is not the first time characterized by the adoption of strange "patriotic" laws. Ten years ago, in the struggle for the purity of the French language, they forbade the printing of the English-language word “email” on the pages of newspapers, forcing to use only its French counterpart. Actually, the roots of the current ban can be sought in the same "patriotism".
According to the logic of the regulator, Facebook and Twitter are commercial companies that profit from their activities, so the constant mention of these services is equal to hidden advertising. In addition, these social services are only one of many similar services, hundreds of social networks, blog hosting sites and microblogging. Thus, the promotion of these two specific names leads to unfair competition, infringing the rights of their competitors.
In general, the ban applies to any third-party commercial services (like Livejournal), just in practice now only Facebook and Twitter are mentioned on all TV channels and on the radio, so the ban will hit them first.
Journalists were allowed to refer to Facebook and Twitter only as specific sources of information, or to mention these companies in the context of any events (for example, if Facebook enters the stock exchange).
')
For journalists, communication with the audience on the Internet has already become part of normal work. Facebook and Twitter were convenient and free services that provided such an opportunity. Now you have to look for other options. Judging by the discussion of this resolution in the French media ( 1 , 2 ), it did not cause any particular protest from the journalists. Indeed, commercial foreign services, hidden advertising - here you can not argue. Another thing is the national French pride, the minimizer (a kind of alternative to the Internet), which at one time was “promoting” on every channel in every program, and this did not cause any protests to anyone.
France is not the first time characterized by the adoption of strange "patriotic" laws. Ten years ago, in the struggle for the purity of the French language, they forbade the printing of the English-language word “email” on the pages of newspapers, forcing to use only its French counterpart. Actually, the roots of the current ban can be sought in the same "patriotism".
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/288856/
All Articles