Ilkhom Abdullayev, Chairman of the Committee on Innovative Development, Information Policy and Information Technologies of the Legislative Chamber, expressed his opinion on the new version of the law “On advertising”, which stipulates that advertising must be given in the state language.

“Recently, there have been various discussions about the language of advertising information. Therefore, I had to express my thoughts on this matter.

First of all, it is necessary to understand that the city information environment is an integral part of the national information space. Anyone traveling from one country to another can easily understand this. The advertising landscape of European cities is very different from that of Asian ones. This difference is reflected in every element – in the construction of advertising space, technical equipment and of course in the language of communication of advertising information, which is considered the main attribute,” the deputy wrote.

In his article, he cited Article 6 of the law:

Article 6. The language of advertising

Advertising in the territory of Uzbekistan is distributed in the state language of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The translation of advertising content can be reproduced in other languages, subject to the following requirements:

•  the text of the translation of the advertising content in other languages should not distort its main meaning in the state language of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
•  the text of the translation of the advertisement in other languages placed through outdoor advertising should be placed horizontally at the bottom of the advertisement text in the state language of the Republic of Uzbekistan and should not exceed 40% of the total advertising area;
•  the size of the letter of the translation of the advertisement in other languages should be smaller than the size of the letter of the advertisement text in the state language of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
•  translation of advertisements in other languages on TV and radio channels, as well as in printed publications, should not exceed 20% of the total daily advertising volume.

The validity of the first and second parts of this Article shall not be applied to:

•  advertisements placed only in printed publications and other types of publishing products published in foreign languages;
•  advertisements placed in the process of showing (broadcasting) television, radio, video, newsreel programs of mass media that broadcast (broadcast) in foreign languages;
•  advertisements placed on the information resources of websites that host materials on the Internet world information network only in foreign languages.
 
Registered trademarks (service marks), typed syllabic signs (logos) may be provided in the language of the original.

“I think that everything is written in this article in a simple and understandable way.

With adoption of the law, all advertisements in our country, including external advertisements, must be presented in the state language. However, this regulation does not prohibit advertisers from publishing translations and presentations of such advertising information in other languages, including the Russian language,” Ilkhom Abdullayev said.

The law will come into force on September 8.