Thông tư 43/2003/TT/BVHTT

CIRCULAR

OF THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND INFORMATION No. 43/2003/TT-BVHTT DATED JULY 16, 2003 GUIDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECREE No. 24/2003/ND-CP DATED March 13, 2003 OF THE GOVERNMENT STIPULATING IN DETAIL THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ORDINANCE ON ADVERTISING

Pursuant to the Ordinance of Advertising No. 39/2001/PL-UBTVQH10 dated November 11, 2001;

Pursuant to the Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP dated March 13, 2003 of the Government stipulating in detail the implementation of the Ordinance on advertising;

Pursuant to the Decree No. 63/2003/ND-CP dated June 11, 2003 of the Government stipulating the functions, duties, power and organizational structure of the Ministry of Culture and Information.

The Ministry of Culture and Information makes guidance on implementing the Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP dated March 13, 2003 of the Government stipulating in detail the implementation of the Ordinance on advertising as follows:

Section 1: GENERAL REGULATIONS

1. The organizations and individuals engaged in advertising activities must comply with the provisions of the Ordinance on advertising and the Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP of March 13, 2003 of the Government detailing the implementation of the Ordinance on advertising (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP) the specific provisions in this Circular and other provisions of the relevant law.

2. A number of terms in the Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP are construed as follows:

a) The workplace of the state agencies is the headquarter of state agencies at all levels; political organization, political - social organizations, police and army barracks;

b) Advertising with large area in the urban areas is an advertising shown in the form of billboards, signs, panels and similar forms with different materials having a surface area of one side from 40 m2 (square meters) or more;

c) The time-defined activity is the activity is defined by the starting time and end time such as fairs, exhibitions, festivals, theatrical festivals and other activities;

d) The same form of billboards, signs, panels, banners are tarpaulin, banners, objects, cubes and other forms of advertising showing the advertising product;

dd) Public places are the places where many people come and go or participate in activities such as markets, restaurants, train stations, bus stations, public squares, resorts, places of cultural and sports activities, entertainment , the intersections of major roads;

e) Political works, including documents, resolutions and directives of the Party classic books of Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought; research books on political theory; history books and historical research books ; books written about the senior leaders of the Party and State; revolutionary memoir books; books on legal normative documents; law propaganda book, traditional education book, professional guidance book of political organizations, social political organizations.

g) Using sound to make noise beyond the noise level permitted according to Vietnamese standard as prescribed in Vietnam standard table issued together with the Decision No. 2351/1998/QD-BKHCNMT dated December 5, 1998 of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (now the Ministry of Science and Technology, code TCVN: 5949:1998);

h) The supplements specialized in advertising is a number of advertising pages increased in addition to the main pages and is released along with the principal issue.
3. Organizations and individuals upon using the images, names of organizations and individuals to advertise must be approved in writing by those organization or individual.

4. For goods which the law does not stipulate the producer must have a certificate of business registration such as agricultural products, food, aqua products of the farmers and some other goods. When advertising those products, there is no need of certificate of business registration but the advertising owner and the advertising distributor must ensure the honesty and accuracy of the quality of advertising goods.

5. For goods and services that the law prohibits the advertising in any form, the logos, trademark, of those goods and services are also prohibited in any form on the advertising media.

Section 2: ADVERTISING ACTIVITY

1. Content and form of advertising

a) The contents of advertising information shown in the advertising products must be consistent with the quality; brand announced or registered with the competent State management agencies;

b) Organizations and individuals advertising their common logos, brand names for many types of goods and services in which there are goods and services banned from advertising, then upon advertising those logos and brand names, they must specify the type of goods, advertising services not prohibited.

2. Advertising on newspapers:

a) The area permitted for advertising is not more than 10%, for printed newspapers are calculated on the total area of pages of some newspapers and magazines permitted for publication by the Ministry of Culture and Information;

b) The press agencies are in need of advertising more than 10% area for the printed newspaper, more than 5% of the duration for radio or television station must apply for permission from the Ministry of Culture and Information to issue the supplements or the channels specialized in advertising;

c) The number of page of the supplements specialized in advertising does not exceed the number of pages and must be individually numbered. Where the number of pages of supplements specialized in advertising that has been issued the license by the Ministry of Culture - Information not contrary to the provisions in Clause 1, Article 6 of the Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP shall be continued for advertising.

d) The program specialized in advertising on radio or television station permitted by the Ministry of Culture and Information must clearly state the specific duration of the advertising that the viewer, right at the beginning of the program.

3. Alcohol advertising:

a) The types of alcohol with an alcoholic volume of 15 degrees or less are only permitted for advertising on printed newspaper, electronic newspaper, radio and television station, internet cache protocol as the other goods advertised on those media.

b) The types of alcohol with an alcoholic volume of more than 15 degrees are advertised only within the boundary of alcohol producers, inside stores, alcohol consumption agent but must ensure that the people outside the business boundary, stores and agents can not read, hear or see;

c) The types of medicinal wine comply with the regulation prescribed in "Regulations about medicines for people," of the Ministry of Health;

d) Notwithstanding the provisions at Points a, b, c of this Clause, the alcohol is seriously banned from advertising in any other way.

4. Prohibiting advertising of tobacco in any form specified in Resolution No. 12/2000/NQ-CP dated August 14, 2000 of the Government on the national policy on prevention of the harmful effects of tobacco in the period 2000 - 2010.

5. Advertising of the products substituting breast milk complies with the Decree No. 74/2000/ND-CP dated December 6, 2000 by the Government on business and the use of products substituting breast milk to protect and encourage breast feeding and the joint Circular No. 04/2001/TTLT/YT-TM-VHTT-UBBVCSTEVN dated March 14, 2001 of the Ministry of Health - Ministry of Trade - Ministry of Culture and Information - the Vietnam Committee for the Protection and Care of Children (now the Committee for Population, Family and Children.) guiding the implementation of the Decree No. 74/2000/ND-CP dated December 6, 2000.

6. No advertising of products of which the content and form of advertising cause unsightliness and donot match the psychology and customs and habits of the nation (such as sanitary napkin, toilet paper, condom, skin disease treatment medicines and other products of similar goods) on radio or television station from 18 PM to 20 PM daily; in the art show and entertainment, no advertising of these products is hang, placed, stuck on the stage background; outdoor advertising must comply with the local regulations regarding the location, time and size of the advertising products of these goods.

7. The kind of publishing books for advertising, the number of advertising pages shall not exceed 5% of the pages of that book. Books published for internal circulation license by the competent authority shall not be advertised.

8. Advertising on billboards, panels, screens, banners, illuminating objects, objects to the, in water, or other moving objects and similar forms suspension, placement, sticking and set up outdoors are defined as follows:

a) Advertising on billboards, panels, screens, banners hung, placed, stuck outdoors must comply with the planning of the local advertising and the provisions of the law on construction;

b) Advertisings on the advertising screens hung, placed, set up outdoors are not permitted to use sound;

c) The advertisings on business activities, goods or services with the profitable purposes are not permitted to hang across the roads, and use the national flag color as a base for advertising;

d) Advertisings on activities with the time defined, the time period of that activity taking place must be determined as the basis for determining the permitted advertising time;

dd) Advertisings on billboards, panels, banners, illuminating objects, objects in the air, in water, or other moving objects and similar forms are displayed by what any materials such as wood, metal sheet, plastic, glass, fabric or other materials to be hung, placed, stuck, set up or affixed on the vehicles must comply with the planning of advertising must be licensed for advertising;

e) The advertising products shown on the vehicles, moving objects such as wheelchairs, cranes and other facilities to serve the construction, electricity repairment, environmental sanitation shall be licensed by the Service of Culture for the registration of advertising on the vehicles and the vehicle paint color area must not be changed more than 50% by the vehicle paint color area for the display of advertising products. The vehicle paint color is the color specified in the vehicle registration issued by the competent authority; not permitted for advertising on the front and back of the vehicle. The container having a surface area of one side from 0.5 m2 (square meters) or more with the advertising products mounted on the motorcycle must be licensed for advertising by the Service of Culture and Information where the vehicles are registered.

9) During festivals, conferences, workshops, art performances, cultural exchanges, sports competitions or entertainment programs on television if the background is hung, placed, stuck and set up advertising product of the sponsors, there is no need to ask for advertising license, but the background must have a name and logo of that program and comply with the provisions of the Article 13 of the Decree No. 24 / 2003/ND-CP;

In case the activities have only one sponsor, it shall not be permitted for the hang, setting up and sticking of more than two advertising products. Where there are multiple sponsors, each sponsor is only permitted to hang, place and stick a promotional product.

10. Advertising on the art performance program must be consistent with the content of the public performance license, advertisiment mixed in the art performance program or through the art performance program must be approved by the competent agency of that public performance program.

11. Advertising on internet cache protocol:

a) The agencies, organizations and enterprises after having the license of internet cache protocol (ICP) of the Ministry of Culture and Information and certificate of business registration for advertising business services prescribed by law shall be allowed for business advertising services on the Internet;

b) The agencies, organizations and enterprises that are allowed to set up the website on the Internet only introduce their activities of production and business, goods and services. They are not allowed to introduce other enterprises and the goods and services that they do not produce and trade .

12. The organizations and individuals advertise their business activities, goods and services on the advertising medium must produce the documents specified in Article 17 of Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP for the person who is doing business of advertising service or advertising distributor.

In case of promotional advertising, there must be a written confirmation of the content of the promotional program with a legal validity of the State management agency on trade.

13. Advertising activity with foreign factors

a) Organizations and individuals dealing in advertising services in Vietnam make the investment cooperation with the foreign organizations and individuals in the form of business cooperation contract or joint venture must submit record for issuance of investment license under the law on foreign investment in Vietnam;

b) For the form of joint venture, the level of investment capital and business capacity must match the scope and area of business of advertising services in Vietnam.

Section 3: CONDITIONS, PROCEDURES AND LICENSING AUTHORITY

1. Request for permission to issue supplements for printed newspapers, channel or program specialized in advertising for radio or television station shall comply with the law on press activities.

2. Quảng cáo trên mạng thông tin máy tính:

Advertising on internet cache protocol:

a) The advertising product advertised on Internet Cache Protocol (including advertising service business network and website), regardless of the network owner is a Vietnamese legal entity Vietnam or foreign legal entity that must send request directly or by mail to the Administration of Basic Culture and Information before implementing the advertising in accordance with the clause 1, Article 19 of Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP;

b) Where the Administration of Basic Culture and Information request the modification of the advertising product before posting on the internet cache protocol for advertising, the person making the advertising shall modify in conformity with the requirement of the Department of Basic Culture and Information.

c) The record for registration to perform the advertising on Internet Cache Protocol including:

- Registration to perform the advertising on Internet Cache Protocol , amount of advertising products, advertising time on Internet Cache Protocol (Annex 1).

- A legal valid copy of the license to provide information on Internet Cache Protocol (ICP) or the license of website establishment.

- The legal valid copy of the certificate of business registration of advertising services (for agencies, organizations, enterprises registering the advertising services on nternet Cache Protocol)

- Disks or other products containing advertising products (two copies).

3. Organizations and individuals performing the advertising on billboards, panels, banners, illuminating objects, objects in the air, in water, or other moving objects and other similar forms of advertising must submit record to the Department of Culture and Information where the advertising is performed. The record includes:

a) Application for advertising performance ( Appendix 2);

b) The legal valid copy of the certificate of business registration of advertising services (for enterprise doing business in advertising services) or a legal valid copy of certificate of registration of business of lines and goods (for enterprise and individual performing the advertising by themselves);

c) A copy of legal valid certificate of quality registration or similar documents on the goods quality for advertising goods that the law has stipulated the quality registration.

d) Maquette of advertising product;

dd)The written evaluation by the competent authorities for the construction of billboards, panels, screens hang, placed, stuck and set up outdoors that the law on construction has stipulated the assessment of constructional structure.

e) For advertising in the medical or agriculture area, there must be a legal valid written receipt of registration of the ad content of the State management agencies on medical issues for the advertising in the medical area or the state management agencies on agriculture for ads in the agricultural area specified in clause 4 and 6 of Article 17 of Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP.

g) For promotional advertising, there must be legal valid document certifying the content of the promotional program of the state management agencies on commerce.

In case of request for extension of advertising (if not changing the content, form, location, size), application must be sent for the advertising extension together with the issued advertising performance license.

4. When the time limit stated in the advertising performance license, the person performing the advertising must remove the advertising products. For the advertising products of which the time limit for advertising is expired but the organizations and individuals wishing to promote their trade name, address, phone number on that media must send a written notice attached to the marquette to Service of Culture and Information where the advertising is performed.

Before the expiration of the ad at least 10 working days, if wishing to continue advertising, the person asking for permission of advertising extension shall submit an application for the advertising extension to the Service of Culture and Information where the license has been issued. Where the Service of Culture and Information does not issue the license of extension, it must reply in writing.

5. Organizations and individuals applying for advertising license; the foreign organizations and individuals doing business in advertising services asking for license of representative office and branch establishment in Vietnam shall pay a fee as prescribed by law on fee and charge and the documents guiding the implementation of the collection, remittance and use of fees. No other fee to be paid in addition to this fee.

6. Within 03 working days since the issuance of the advertising license (Appendix 3), the Service of Culture and Information shall send the copy of the license to the Division of Culture and Information of districts, towns and provincial cities, and central run cities where the advertising is performed.

7. If exceeding the time limit by 30 working days from the date of issuance of the advertising performance license but the person asking for the license does not perform the advertising, the license therefore becomes invalid.

8. The licensing agency must carry out the following regulations:

a) Publicly listing the advertising planning and regulations on record, procedures and fees;

b) Issuing the record receiving slip to the applicant (Annex 4);

c) The record on the issuance of license must be kept and recorded into book under the unified form (Annex 5);

Section 4: STATE MANAGEMENT

1. Ministry of Culture and Information is the agency assissting the Government on the state management on the advertising activities in the country and shall be responsible before the Minister of Culture and Information in performing the state management of advertising with the following units:

a) The Administration of Basic Culture and Information

- Assisting the Minister of Culture and Information to perform the State management over advertising in the country. Presiding over and coordinating the administrations and departments concerned on the state management of advertising activities.

- Receiving and assessing the record for issuing the license for branch establishment of the foreign organizations and individuals dealing in advertising services in Vietnam and submitting to the Ministry of Culture and Information for issuance, amendment, supplement or revocation of license (Annex 6, 7).

- Assessing the advertising products before performing the advertising on the Internet Cache Protocol.

- Contributing opinions in the commendation and bonus and violation handling in advertising activities.

b) The Press Administration, Cinema Administration, Publishing Department, Administration of Art Performance, Administration of literature - art copyright and other admisnitrations and departments concerned within their scope of duties and powers, shall coordinate with the Administration of Basic Culture and Information to perform the state management over the advertising in area of their management;

c) The inspector of Culture and Information is responsible for inspecting and handling violations and coordinating with the sectors concerned solve the complaints and denunciations in the advertising activities under the authority prescribed in the current legal documents.

2. The Service of Culture and Information shall preside over and coordinate with the sectors for the advertising building in order to submit to the People's Committees of central run provinces and cities for approval and receiving record, assessing and submitting to the People's Committees of central run provinces and cities to issue the license for representative office establishment of the foreign organizations and individuals dealing in advertising services located at the localities (Annex 6, 7); perform the tasks specified in Clause 2 of Article 31 of Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP of the Government; periodically making report once for every 6 months to the Ministry of Culture and Information (Administration of Basic Culture and Information) on the following contents:

a) The state management documents issued on advertising of the localities;

b) Advertising planning of the localities;

c) The number of enterprises registering the business of advertising services with their head offices on the local areas, the number of enterprises dealing with advertising services in the country having branches or representative offices in the localities;

d) The number and activity of branches and representative offices of organizations and individuals doing business in foreign advertising activities at the localities;

dd)The number of licenses issued for advertising (specifically to the media);

e) The breaches of advertising activities and the result of violation handling in the area.

Section 5: IMPLEMENTATION PROVISION

1. This Circular shall take effect after 15 days since its publication in the Public Gazette;

2. From the date this Circular takes effect, the following documents shall be annulled:

a) Circular No. 37/VHTT-TT dated July 1, 1995 the Ministry of Culture and Information guiding the implementation of the Decree No. 194/CP dated December 31, 1994 by the Government on advertising activities on the territory of Vietnam, the Circular No. 07/1998/TT-BVHTT dated December 5, 1998 amending and supplementing the Article 5 of the Circular No. 37/VHTT-Circular dated July 1, 1995;

b) The other provisions previously issued by the Ministry of Culture and Information contrary to the provisions of this Circular.

3. Issued together with this Circular are forms from Appendix 1 to Appendix 7 for the unified implementation nationwide including: Registration for advertising on the internet cache protocol; Application for advertising and advertising performance license; slip of advertising performance record receiving; forms of monitoring book of advertising performance licensing; Application for request and license of branches and representative offices of the foreign organizations and individuals dealing in advertising services.