Welcome to 2008's first issue of Focus - EASA's external newsletter

2008 promises to be another interesting year for self-regulation. Following the adoption of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive in December of 2007 the increasing recognition of the role of effective self-regulation as a complement to pure regulation and legislation is continuing. Self-regulatory organisations (SROs) have worked hard to meet the standards and targets drawn up by the EASA Self-Regulation Charter signed by the industry and witnessed by the European Commission in 2004. Three years after the signing, the improvements and results have been assessed. You can read more about this in the first article of this Focus.

The second article provides a more in-depth focus on the major self-regulatory reforms that were undertaken in both France and Belgium recently, in line with the above mentioned Charter Validation commitments, in particular on stakeholder involvement. Both SROs have recently reformed their structures and will now accommodate Juries including members of civil society to deal with complaints.

Issues like food and alcohol advertising have been stealing the show in the past months but lately newcomers such as advertising in digital media environment and sustainability are demanding their share of the attention. For this issue of Focus, Mike Longhurst from the agency McCann Erickson and key sustainability expert of the European Association of Communications Agencies has contributed an article on environmental issues within advertising and the challenges for regulation and self-regulation.

We hope you will enjoy this issue and as always, if you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us.