From now on, Swedish public radio and TV broadcasters SR and SVT may not encourage their listeners and viewers to visit their pages on Facebook.
In a regional news broadcast the presenter urged listeners to go in and have their say on the programme’s Facebook page. According to the Swedish Broadcasting Commission this broke the broadcasting law by promoting commercial interests. A feature on the regional programme “Morning” on P4 from Kristianstad was deemed to have broken the law on similar grounds.
According to the Radio and Television Law, non-commercial programmes should not unduly benefit commercial interests. This means that the programmes should not encourage the purchase or lease, be promotional or highlight a product or a service in an inappropriate manner. It is allowed to mention the existence of a Facebook group, but not specifically to encourage people to join it.
(Source: Dagensmedia.se - translated from Swedish)
Andy Sennitt comments: This is a clear example of the problems some countries are experiencing with media laws that were formulated before the advent of social media. Here at RNW, along with the other public broadcasters we are expanding our use of social media, and so far this has not raised any questions about breaches of the media law.
on Sep 8th, 2010 at 04:27
As much as I support public broadcasting. I have felt that for the past 10 years many of them are out of touch with what is going on. My feeling is if public broadcasters in Europe want to stay relevant they need to embrace social media. Speaking for myself on my Iphone I’m signed up to VOA, CNN International and BBC New for updates and headlines. If I could add DW and RWN I would.
Often after getting a twit or facebook message I will check out there website or broadcast to find out more details.
You will find this funny. But the recent elections held in the Netherlands I didn’t get the headlines of the outcome from RNW. I got it from twit from the VOA.
I find what is going on in Sweden very odd. As you know Radio Sweden is dropping shortwave soon and switching to streaming and podcasts online. So if I understand this, it means Radio Sweden an online broadcaster will not be able to use online social media. Hummmm! Something is wrong somewhere.