Romania’s National Audiovisual Council (CNA) issued fines to broadcasters totaling €541,000 in 2015.
Hotnews reports that while this was higher than the €411,000 in 2014, the number of summons fell from 69 to 66 over the same period. It adds that most punishments were handed out to national services, while news channels received fewer fines than generalist ones.
Antena 1 was the most fined and its owner Intact received fines totaling almost €110,000 in 2015, or double the amount in the previous year. These were not only for programmes but exceeding the 12 minutes per hour commercial airtime.
Meanwhile, while Antena 3 was the most fined news channel in 2014, it was taken over by B1 TV, Realitatea TV and TV Romania last year.
2015 also marked a ‘first’ for the RCS&RDS news channel Digi24, with the service receiving its first fine, of €2,300, since its launch.
After Antena 1, the most fined channel in 2015 was Kanal D. Prima TV received only a single, albeit maximum, fine during the year.