Media regulations: Italy

Law n. 515, of 10 of December 1993, on Discipline in the electoral campaigns for the election of the House of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic

“Gazzetta Ufficiale” (Official Gazette) of the Republic of Italy n. 292, S.O. of the

14/12/1993

1. Access to the means of communication

1. Within 5 days of the calling of the election for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, the parliamentary commission for the supervision of radio and television services provides to the public service broadcaster the regulations necessary to guarantee, in conditions of equality of treatment, suitable spaces for advertising on the public service broadcaster, as well as access to such spaces for political lists and groups of candidates at regional level, and for parties or significant political movements at national level. The commission also directly regulates the electoral surveys and the services or programmes of electoral information of the public service broadcaster during the election period, so as to guarantee equal treatment, completeness and impartiality for all parties and movements competing in the electoral campaign.

2. (ABROGATED)

3. (ABROGATED)

5. From the date of the calling of an election to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to the end of the vote, the presence of candidates, representatives of parties and political movements and members of the government, regional councils and local authorities in current affairs programmes with responsibility attributable to a specific journalistic publication registered as indicated in paragraph 1 of article 10 of law number 223 of 6 August 1990 must be limited exclusively to the need to guarantee completeness and the impartiality of information. Such a presence is forbidden in all other programmes. Paragraph thus modified from article 5 of law number 28 of 22 February 2000.

5a. The regulation of this article is applied to supplementary elections, limited to the relevant region or regions. Additional paragraph from article 1a, of bill number 131 of 13 May 1999, in the integrated text of the relevant law of conversion.

2. Electoral advertising in newspapers and magazines and on radio and

television (ABROGATED)

3. Other forms of advertising

1. From the same date as stated in article 1, paragraph 2, the electoral advertising for political lists, groups of candidates or individual candidates through leaflets and posters is accepted within the limits allowed by law number 212 of 4 April 1956, and successive modifications.

2. All publications of electoral advertising, whether written material, printed or photographic material, radio and television broadcasts, tape-recordings and any other type of divulgation must indicate he name of the buyer responsible.

3. Newspapers, radio and television stations, printers and whoever else is asked to produce material or provide services which could be used for any form of electoral advertising, including consultancy and intermediation, are required to ascertain that the relevant requests have been made directly by the administrative secretary or the delegates responsible for advertising, or else by the individual candidates or their mandate holders, who are required to issue invoices. In the circumstances set out in paragraph 4 they are required to acquire a copy of the authorisation of the candidate or of his mandate holder.

4. While adhering to that set out in paragraph 2, the instruments of electoral advertising of one or more candidates, produced or commissioned by trade unions or social or professional organisations, must be authorised by the candidates or by their mandate holders. The cost of such forms of advertising is calculated for the purposes of being shared according to the expenditure limit stated in article 7.

4. Communication with the voters

1. As soon as the first-past-the-post constituencies are determined, and each time they are reviewed, the councils whose territorial jurisdiction covers more than one such constituency must send a letter to each voter specifying the first-past-the-post constituency, both for the Chamber of Deputies and for the Senate, in which the voter will be able to exercise his/her right to vote and sign for the presentation of the candidatures.

5. Ban on institutional advertising (ABROGATED)

6. Dissemination of opinion polls (ABROGATED)

Law 22nd of February 2000, n. 28 on Provisions for equal access to the means of communication during electoral and referenda campaigns and for political Communication Published in the “Gazzetta Ufficiale” (Official Gazette) of the Republic of Italy n. 43 of 22 February 2000

Article 1

(Aim and area of application)

1. This law promotes and regulates access to the means of communication for political communication, with the aim of guaranteeing equal treatment and impartiality for all political subjects.

2. This law also promotes and regulates, to the same end, access to the means of communication during the campaigns for elections to the European Parliament, for political, regional and administrative elections and for every referendum.

Article 2

(Political communication on radio and television)

1. Radio and television broadcasters must guarantee impartiality and fairness in access to information and political communication for all political subjects.

2. Political communication on radio and television is defined for the purposes of this law as the broadcasting on radio and television of programmes containing political opinions and appraisals. The provisions of the succeeding paragraphs are applied to political communication. They are not applied to news broadcasts.

3. Equality of conditions is guaranteed in the presentation of opinions and political positions on political platforms, in debates, at round tables, in the presentation in debate of political programs, in question and answer sessions, in interviews and in any other transmission in which the presentation of opinions and political beliefs takes on a significant role.

4. The broadcasting of programmes of political communication on radio and television is obligatory for national radio broadcasters and for national television broadcasters with the requirement of providing information that they transmit clearly. The participation in such programmes is in any case free.

5. The Parliamentary Commission for the supervision of radio and television services, hereafter referred to as “Commission”, and the Authority for guarantees in communication, hereafter referred to as “Authority”, subject to consultation between them, and each acting in accordance with its responsibilities, establish the rules for the implementation of the regulations stated in this article.

Article 3

(Self-managed political messages)

1. Radio and television broadcasters, which offer spaces for free political communication in accordance with article 2, paragraph 3 can transmit selfmanaged political messages, free or paid for, hereafter referred to as “messages”.

2. The transmission of messages is optional for private broadcasters and obligatory for the public broadcaster, which arranges to make the necessary technical structures for the creation of said messages available to the applicant.

3. The messages contain the reasoned statement of a programme or of a political opinion and last for between one and three minutes for the television broadcasters and between thirty and ninety seconds for the radio broadcasters, as chosen by the applicant. The messages cannot interrupt other programmes, have an autonomous place in the programming and are to be transmitted in suitable programmes, whose position in the programming is to be communicated by each broadcaster to the Commission or the Authority with at least fifteen days notice.

The messages are not considered in the calculation of the advertising ceilings provided for by the law.

4. For each national radio or television broadcaster the spaces for the messages cannot exceed 25% of the effective total duration of programmes of political communication transmitted in accordance with article 2, paragraph 3 of the same broadcaster or on the same network in the same week or the same time slot. A maximum of two programmes for each day of programming is allowed.

5. Local radio and television broadcasters which intend to transmit paid-for selfmanaged political messages must offer spaces for free political communication as stated in article 2 for a period of time equal to that of the messages actually broadcast, to a maximum of four. No political subject can broadcast more than two messages per day per broadcaster.

6. The spaces for the messages are offered on the condition of equal treatment of the political subjects whose election is considered in article 1, paragraph 2. The designation of the spaces in each programme is done by the drawing of lots.

Unused spaces belonging to a political subject cannot be offered to another political subject. Each message can be transmitted only once in each programme. Nobody can broadcast more than one message in the same programme. Each message contains the denomination “free self-managed message” or “paid for selfmanaged message” and an indication of the paying for subject.

7. The national broadcasters can transmit only free self-managed political messages. Local broadcasters offer a discount of 50% on the prices normally stipulated for advertising in the same time slots.

8. The Authority and the Commission, each operating within its respective jurisdiction, fix the criteria of rotation for the use, during each month, of the spaces for selfmanaged messages mentioned in previous paragraphs and adopt any further provisions necessary for the implementation of the regulation provided for in this article.

Article 4

(Political communication on radio and television and self-managed messages on radio and television during election campaigns)

1. From the moment an election is called political communication on radio and television takes the following form: political platforms, debates, round tables, the presentation in debate of candidates and of political programmes, interviews and any other form which permits a comparison between political positions and the competing candidates.

2. The Commission and the Authority, subject to consultation between them, and each acting in accordance with its responsibilities, determine the designation of the spaces among the political subjects according to the following criteria:

a. in the period between the date of the calling of the election and the date of the presentation of the candidates the spaces are distributed between the political subjects present in the assemblies to be re-elected as well as between those not represented in said assemblies provided that they are represented in the European Parliament or in one of the two chambers of Parliament.

b. in the period between the date of the presentation of the candidates and the date of the closure of the electoral campaign the spaces are distributed according to the principle of equal opportunity between the coalitions and between the competing lists which have fielded candidates in constituencies which compose at least one quarter of the total number of eligible voters, except for the possible presence of political subjects representing recognized minority languages, bearing in mind the electoral system to be applied and the territorial sphere of reference.

c. in the period between the first and the second vote in the case of a second ballot, the spaces are distributed equally between the two competing candidates.

d. for a referendum, the spaces are distributed equally between those for and those against the referendum.

3. From the date of the presentation of the candidates for the election as stated in article 1, paragraph 2, national radio and television broadcasters can transmit selfmanaged messages for the non-contradictory presentation of political lists and programmes, in accordance with the conditions established by the Commission and the Authority on the basis of the following criteria:

a. the spaces for the messages are distributed equally among the different political subjects, also with reference to the time slots of transmission.

b. the messages are organised in a self-managed way, are transmitted without payment and must last for a period sufficient to permit the presentation of a political programme or a political opinion, and in any case last, at the choice of the applicant, between one and three minutes for television broadcasters and between thirty and ninety seconds for radio broadcasters.

c. the messages cannot interrupt other programmes, or be interrupted themselves, have an autonomous position in the programming and are transmitted in suitable programmes with a maximum of four programmes per day.

d. the messages are not considered in the calculation of the advertising ceilings provided for by the law.

e. each message can be transmitted only once in each programme.

f. no political subject can broadcast more than two messages per day.

e. each message contains the denomination “self-managed message” and an indication of the paying for subject.

4. The transmission of self-managed messages as stated in paragraph 3 is obligatory for the public broadcaster, which arranges to make the necessary technical structures for the creation of said messages available to the applicant.

5. Local radio and television broadcasters which agree to transmit without payment self-managed messages, in the terms and with the conditions stated in paragraph

3, will receive a reimbursement from the State in the measure defined by 31 January every year with a decree from the Ministry of Communication in agreement with the Treasury. At least one third of the total amount set aside annually is designated for radio broadcasters. Initially, the reimbursement for each self-managed message is 12,000 lire for radio broadcasters and 40,000 lire for television broadcasters, regardless of the duration of the message. The amount set aside each year is distributed among the regions and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano in proportion to the number of citizens on the electoral lists in each region and autonomous province. The reimbursement is made within the ninety days after the conclusion of the electoral operations for the spaces actually used and jointly certified by the broadcaster and the political subject, within the limit of available resources, by the region which uses, for the investigative proceedings and the management of the spaces offered by the broadcaster, the regional communication committee or, where such a body has not yet been set up,

by the regional committee for radio and television services. In the Trentino-Alto Adige region the reimbursement is made by the autonomous provinces which use, for the investigative proceedings, the provincial committees for radio and television services until the setting up of the new bodies provided for in paragraph 13 of article 1 of law number 249 of 31 July 1997.

6. For the broadcasters as stated in paragraph 5 a maximum of six of the programmes as stated in paragraph 3 letter c per day are allowed. Each political subject can have a maximum of one message per day on the same broadcaster.

The Authority distributes equally the spaces for the messages between the political subjects, also with reference to the transmission time slots, and fixes the total number of messages to distribute between the applying political subjects in relation to the resources available in each region, using the relevant regional communication committees or, where they have not yet been set up, the regional committees for radio and television services.

7. Local radio and television broadcasters which agree to transmit free self-managed messages in accordance with paragraphs 5 and 6, in the terms of and with the conditions stated in paragraph 3, have the right to broadcast paid for messages, up to a maximum of two per day for each political subject, under the conditions set out in paragraph 7 of article 3 and according to the conditions stated in letters b to g inclusive in paragraph 3 of the present article. The total time given to the broadcast of paid-for self-managed messages must be, by law, equal to the time given to the broadcast of free self-managed messages in the same week.

8. Local and national radio and television broadcasters inform the Authority, within five days after the date stated in paragraph 1, the position in the programming of the programmes. Until the electoral operations have been completed, each successive modification must be communicated to the same Authority at least five days in advance.

9. From the date of the calling of the election to the closure of the election campaign the transmission on radio or television of messages of propaganda, publicity or political communication, however denominated, is allowed exclusively according to the regulations of this article.

10. For referenda the regulations concerning the broadcast of political communication and self-managed messages stated in the previous paragraphs are applied from the date of the calling of the referendum.

11. The Commission and the Authority, subject to consultation between them, and each acting in accordance with its responsibilities, establish the territorial broadcasting limit mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, bearing in mind the importance of the consultation in the national territory.

Article 5

(Information programmes on radio and television)

1. The Commission and the Authority, subject to consultation between them, and each acting in accordance with its responsibilities, define within five days of the calling of an election the specific criteria which, until the end of voting, the public broadcaster and the private radio and television broadcasters must respect in their information programmes, with the aim of guaranteeing equal treatment, objectivity and the completeness and impartiality of information.

2. From the date of the calling of the election until the closure of the electoral process it is forbidden for any radio or television broadcast to give, even in an indirect form, voting indications or present their own voting preferences.

3. The producers and the presenters are also required to behave correctly and impartially in the management of the programme, so as not to influence, even in a surreptitious form, the free choice of the electors.

4. In paragraph 5 of article 1 of law number 515 of 10 December 1993 the words “Beginning from the thirtieth day prior to the date of the vote for election to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate” are replaced by “From the date of the calling of the election for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate until the closure of the electoral process”.

Article 6

(Radio stations of political parties)

The provisions of articles 1 to 5 do not apply to radio stations mentioned in article 11 paragraph 2 of law number 67 of 25 February 1987 and successive modifications. It is forbidden for such radio stations to provide spaces, whether free or paid-for, for selfmanaged  messages.

Article 7

(Electoral political messages in newspapers and periodicals)

1. From the date of the calling of the election until the day prior to the election itself, the editors of newspapers and periodicals, if they intend to publish any type of electoral political message, must give timely notification of it in their respective publications in order to allow equal access to the relevant spaces to the candidates and the political parties. The communication must be made according to the conditions and with the content set by the Authority.

2. Only the following types of electoral political message are permitted:

a. announcements of debates, round tables, conferences, speeches.

b. publications which present the electoral manifestos of the political lists, the groups of candidates and the individual candidates.

c. publications of comparisons between candidates.

3. The provisions stated in paragraphs 1 and 2 do not apply to official newspapers or periodicals of political parties or political movements, or to electoral publications of political lists, groups of candidates or individual candidates. Furthermore, these provisions do not apply to other newspapers and periodicals outside the period stated in paragraph 1.

Article 8

(Political and electoral opinion polls)

1. In the fifteen days prior to the election it is forbidden to make public or publish or broadcast the results of opinion polls on the result of the election or on the voting intentions of the electors, even if such opinion polls have been conducted prior to the exclusion period.

2. The Authority establishes the obligatory criteria by which the opinion polls stated in paragraph 1 must be conducted.

3. The results of the opinion polls conducted outside the period stated in paragraph 1 can be published or broadcast only if accompanied by he following indications. These indications are the responsibility of the subject who has conducted the opinion poll, and must be made available at the same time, in their entirety and with the same indications, on the special web-site set up and run by the Department for Information and Publishing under the Presidency of the Council of Ministers:

a. the subject who conducted the opinion poll

b. the buyer

c. the criteria followed in determining the sample

d. the method of collecting information and the elaboration of the data

e. the number of people questioned and the area of reference

f. the questions asked

g. the percentage of people questioned who didn’t reply to any question

h. the date on which the opinion poll was conducted

Article 9

(Regulation of institutional communication and the requirement of information)

1. From the date of the calling of the election until the closure of the election it is forbidden for any part of the public administration to conduct communication activities with the exception of those done in an impersonal form and necessary for the effective running of its administrative duties.

2. Public or private radio or television broadcasters, on the instruction of the relevant authorities, inform the citizens of the voting conditions and the opening and closing time of the polling stations.

Article 10

(Measures and sanctions)

1. Violation of the provisions stated in this law, as well as those issued by the Commission and the Authority, will be prosecuted by the latter, according to the provisions of this article. Any interested political subject can, in any case, report such violations within ten days of their occurrence. The violation should be reported, even by fax:

a. to the Authority.

b. to the private broadcaster or editor where the violation occurred.

c. to the relevant regional communication committee or, where said body has not yet been set up, to the regional committee for radio and television services.

d. to the tax authorities which have territorial responsibility for the domicile of the broadcaster or the editor. Said tax authorities will then take the necessary steps to secure the relevant recordings as stipulated by the Authority or by the report of the violation within the following twelve hours.

2. The Authority, making use also of the relevant regional communication committee or, where said body has not yet been set up, of the regional committee for radio and television services, as well as the relevant territorial inspectorate of the Ministry of Communication and the tax authorities, initiates a brief investigation and, once the facts have been declared, even by fax, the interested parties listened to and possible counter-deductions acquired, to be transmitted within twenty four hours of the notification, takes a decision without delay, and in any case within the forty eight hours following the verification of the violation or of the declaration, derogating from the terms and the procedural conditions stated in law number 689 of 24 November 1981.

3. In the case of a violation of articles 2, 4, paragraphs 1, 2 and 6, the Authority orders the radio or television broadcaster to transmit political communication programmes with significant participation of the political subjects who were directly damaged by the violation.

4. In the case of a violation of articles 3 and 4, paragraphs 3 to 7, the Authority orders the relevant radio or television broadcaster to suspend immediately the transmission of programmes in violation of this law and:

a. the creation of spaces, free or paid-for, for the transmission of self-managed political messages by subjects damaged or illegitimately excluded, thus restoring the balance between the political parties.

b. if necessary, the restoration of balance between the spaces designated for messages and those designated for free political communication.

5. In the case of a violation of article 5, the Authority orders the relevant radio or television broadcaster to transmit political communication programmes with significant participation of the political subjects who were directly damaged by the violation.

6. In the case of a violation of article 7, the Authority orders the relevant editor to make available spaces for compensatory electoral publicity for the political subjects who were illegitimately excluded.

7. In the case of a violation of article 8, the Authority orders the relevant radio or television broadcaster or editor to declare such circumstanc es on the means of communication which published or broadcast the opinion poll with the same importance, in terms of time slot, position and editorial characteristics, as that given to the publication of the original opinion polls.

8. In addition to that envisaged in paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, the Authority orders:

a. the transmission or publication, even repeated depending on the seriousness of the case, of messages containing an indication of the violation committed.

b. where necessary, the transmission or publication, even repeated depending on the seriousness of the case, of corrections with the same importance, in terms of time slot, position and editorial characteristics, as that given to the communication to be corrected.

9. Furthermore, the Authority can also adopt further emergency measures with the aim of restoring balance in the access to political communication.

10. The measures of the Authority stated in this article can be contested at the Regional Administrative Court (TAR) of Lazio within thirty days of the communication of said measures. In the case of inertia on the part of the Authority,

the interested subjects can, within the same time period, ask the TAR of Lazio, even in closed session, to convict the Authority itself and require it to take a decision within three days of the judgement. In the case of a request for a closed session, the interested subjects can transmit or deposit memoirs within five days of the notification. The TAR of Lazio, independently of the subdivision of the court in session, declares its opinion on the request for suspension in the first Council Chamber after the expiry of the period as stated in the previous sentence, and in

any case not after the seventh day from this. The same rules apply for appeals before the Council of State.

Article 11

(Conditions of communication)

1. Within thirty days of the vote for election to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and also in the case of supplementary elections, the owners of local and national radio and television broadcasters and the editors of newspapers and magazines inform the Presidents of the Chamber and the Senate, as well as the regional committee of electoral guarantee as stated in article 13 of law number 515 of 10 December 1993, about the services of political communication and the political messages published or broadcast in accordance with the previous articles, the names of those who have participated in them, the spaces given free of charge or at a reduced price, the associated income and the names of the subjects who have made the relevant payments.

2. In the case of a failure to respect the conditions stated in paragraph 1, a fine of from ten million lire to one hundred million lire will be imposed.

Article 12

(Financial cover)

1. The financial burden deriving from the introduction of this law, valued at twenty billion lire beginning in the year 2000, will be covered by a corresponding reduction in the registered appropriation in the three-year budget 2000-2002 of the base forecast unit of the current “Special Fund” estimated by the Treasury, using in part for the years 2000 and 2002 the reserve funds of the Treasury and for the year  2001 the reserve funds of the Ministry of Finance.

2. The Treasury is authorised to implement, with its own decrees, the necessary changes in the budget.