Fortune tellers, betting shops and cosmetic surgeons will be allowed advertise on television and radio, under a new advertising code announced yesterday. However, each will face restrictions in how they can advertise.
As expected, advertising of "alco-pops" will be prohibited.
The rules are contained in the General Advertising Code, which was launched yesterday by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI). Details of the new Code of Programme Standards, which deals with taste and decency in programming, were also announced.
Both codes will be applied to State, commercial and community broadcasters and will come into force from April 10th. However, these will not apply to BBC, ITV, Sky or any broadcasters licensed outside of Ireland.
During the codes' consultative process, concerns were expressed that the advertising of betting services would lead to increased gambling.
At the launch, BCI chairman Conor Maguire said that the final code had attempted to reflect all concerns. "We've tried to be as practical and fair-minded as possible to all the different stakeholders involved. I think if you look at the codes themselves you'll see that there's a great deal of practicality."
Regarding restrictions on such products as cosmetic treatments, medicines, anti-smoking aids and hypnotherapy, he said that all "scientific claims have to be looked at with some scepticism to some extent. There's a basic requirement of truth and honesty in relation to the advertisements that should be put there in the first instance. As well as that, we want to be careful about what's promoted on one hand and what's just advertised".
Asked if such standards could be applied to fortune tellers and psychics, he said: "The fact of the availability of the service can be advertised. As to whether or not they are telling the future in truth, that's a matter that can't be promoted."
Fortune tellers and psychics, meanwhile, will have to make clear that their services are for "entertainment purposes only", and will not be able to claim that they can predict the future or make contact with the dead.
Among the products prohibited under the rules are tobacco, prescription medicines and infant formula.
Under the code, advertising on RTÉ will also now be regulated alongside independent broadcasters. The broadcaster recently continued to air an advertisement for Trócaire's Lenten campaign, despite the BCI's ruling that it should be banned from commercial broadcasters because it had political ends.
"It's a very logical development of a single content regulator," said Mr Maguire. "So you have one regulator who is responsible for content and that you'll get uniformity in relation to that."
Under the new Code of Programme Standards, broadcasters must implement a classification system for programme material and ensure that content is suitable for the time at which it is aired.
RTÉ welcomed the guidelines. "It is important for broadcasting that the public can have access to an independent body with the power to adjudicate on claims that broadcasts have breached acceptable standards," a spokesman commented. "The Broadcasting Complaints Commission now has a set of guidelines that it can apply whenever a member of the public feels that a programme has given offence."
