The law “On advertising”, which states that advertising must be in the state language, will come into force on September 9. Blogger Shakhnoza Soatova criticized the inaction of responsible organizations in this regard.
“From September 9, the new version of the law “On advertising” will come into force. But it seems that no one knows about it, there is unpleasant inaction and silence.
The point is that according to the new Law, advertising must be given in the state language. Depending on the situation, a translation into other languages may be provided, but its font may be smaller than the main text in the national language, it may express the content correctly and occupy a maximum of 40% of the total advertising space.
I was personally very happy with the new version of the law’s Article 6 – I thought that the current dominance of another language while advertising would end.
But despite the fact that there is less than 1 month left before the law comes into force, everyone is silent and motionless for some reason. Not a single businessman’s office, store or shopping center is trying to update the advertising boards. The responsible organizations, in particular, the Anti-Monopoly Committee and the Department of Spirituality and State Language Development, which is in charge of the field, are silent. There is no mention of this on the social network pages of the department, there is no mention of it on TV and radio. Entrepreneurs have not even received a notification about updating the advertising boards. So, it seems that in practice, no one wants to comply with Article 6 of the law,” Shakhnoza Soatova wrote.
According to the blogger, this kind of indifference to the promotion of the law may cause protests from businessmen tomorrow.
“Even if we ignore the fact that this law and the responsibility for not complying with it are all costs for the businessman, tomorrow there will be protests on the Internet and they will be saying that the banners on streets are being forcibly removed again.
Why have the necessary measures not been taken until now? What happens after the law comes into force? This is the law, isn’t it?
How long will our cities and even our remote villages be filled with outdoor advertisements that shamefully expose our dependence on a foreign language?
The new edition of the law on the state language has been vanished. At least let the Law “On advertising” work. Is it an independent Uzbekistan with its official Uzbek language, or is it a country still unable to get rid of its colonial past? Recently I saw in Georgia: signs are in Russian, Turkish, English, but all of them are written in Georgian language. However, Georgia has been under the colonial rule for a longer time than we have.
Language is a mirror that shows the character, determination, value of a nation. Our window is cloudy, we need to clean it,” Shakhnoza Soatova writes.
Kun.uz correspondent contacted Sobir Shukurov, head of the Department of Spirituality and State Language Development, to get a comment on the lack of action in promotion of the law “On advertising”. The department head said that he has been attending the festival organized in Nukus and informed that it is being worked on.
“We are working on this now, preparing a video and making a couple of promotional materials. Our team, which includes 200 poets, artists and spiritualists, were sent to Karakalpakstan long ago.
We will start this soon,” Shukurov said.
For information, this is not the first case of the government’s lack of respect and indifference to the norms and laws regarding the State language. Kun.uz previously published an article about the Oliy Majlis Legislative Chamber’s decision to remove the new version of the Law “On State Language” from further consideration by the Legislative Chamber.
