The advertisement broadcast on public channels by a group owning a network of private clinics throughout the Kingdom is currently under debate. Is this type of advertising allowed or not? According to the Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication, Mehdi Bensaid, the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HACA), which is authorized to rule on this issue, has never opposed this type of advertising.
“The HACA, authorized by Law 11.15 to oversee compliance by public and private audiovisual communication operators with legal and regulatory provisions and the sector’s specifications, has never made a decision against an audiovisual communication operator for broadcasting advertisements for private clinics on television.”
This is Mehdi Bensaid’s response to a question from Istiqlalian advisor Mohamed Zidouh during the weekly oral questions session at the House of Advisors held on Tuesday. Zidouh questioned the minister about advertisements related to the health sector broadcast on public channels.
The advisor emphasized that the goal of his question was to maintain a certain ethics in the health sector, which is essentially a social and not a commercial sector. He recalled that there is a Code of Ethics prohibiting advertising for any health sector actor. The advisor also questioned why advertisements for private clinics had never been broadcast on public channels before, and why that has changed now.
In response, the Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication reminded that the HACA operates independently and that the government does not interfere in its prerogatives.
“Without a decision from the HACA, it is difficult for the government to prohibit this type of advertising,” said Bensaid, adding that “the government remains open to the possibility of developing, in partnership with the Parliament, a law in this direction to preserve the purely social vocation of the health sector.”
Bensaid also assured that the National Society of Radio Broadcasting and Television and SOREAD-2M comply with the provisions of Law No. 77.03 related to audiovisual communication, as well as the specifications related to the broadcasting of advertising messages on their television and radio channels.
Similarly, the minister added, the specifications for public audiovisual communication operators do not prohibit these two companies from broadcasting advertising messages promoting the actions of health establishments.
