M'SIA: NEW ADVERTISING RULES AIMED AT PROTECTING CONSUMERS' INTERESTS

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 (Bernama) -- A revised Malaysian Code of Advertising Practice was launched here Tuesday.

Touted to protect consumers' interest and ensure fair-play among
competitors, the revised code is said to be a modified and greatly expanded
version of the International Code of Practice published by the International
Chamber of Commerce as long ago as 1937 and the British Code of Advertising
Practice.

"The industry organisation comprising the Malaysian Advertisers Association
(MAA), the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) and the
Malaysian Newspapers Publishers Association (MBPA) set up the Advertising
Standards Authority Malaysia (ASA) to administer the code," ASA chairman
Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said at the launch of the code at Wisma Bernama here
Tuesday.

The main objectives of the code are to promote and enforce high standards
in
advertisements, to ivestigate complaints and ensure that the system works in the
public interest.


It has been designed to ensure that advertising in Malaysia can be
trusted,
is legal, decent, honest and prepared with a sense of responsibility to the
consumer.

Abdul Kadir said the code contained general guidelines relevant to all
advertisements as well as rules for specific sectors as children, slimming, and
health.

He said the primary responsibility for observing the code will fall on the
advertiser.

Before publishing any advertisements, the advertiser must be able to
produce
all documentary evidence needed to support any claim, whether explicit or
implicit, made in the advertisement.

This is a reversal of the burden of proof, if there appear to be
prima facie grounds for challenging a claim no other evidence need be
produced by ASA.

According to Abdul Kadir in this third editon of the code, new sections
have
been developed - to cover Environmental Claims, Motoring, Property Advertising
and Database marketing.

It has dropped the specific rules on cigarettes advertising as the tobacco
companies have adhered to calls from the authorities and agreed to self-regulate
by not advertising cigarettes.

Abdul Kadir said the ASA had a monumental task as the code covered all
advertisements within the print media, billboards, leaflets and labels amongst
many others; all of which account for over 60 percent of the country's
advertising expenditure.

In 2007, RM5.4 billion was spent on advertisements.

The first edition of the industry regulated code was launched by the first
Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1977.

Meanwhile, a number of sanctions exist to counteract advertisements that
conflict with the code.

Those include denial of media space, adverse publicity from the ASA's
rulings, as well as imposition of sanctions by the industries professional
associations.