Asgarpour: Delegating regulation to any institution requires a law and not a regulation

According to Fars news agency, the third meeting of the trade association of online video display companies was held with the presence of the trade union members, and in this meeting, the trade union’s concerns in the field of regulation and the need to maintain unity among the members were raised.

The secretary of the association was the first speaker of this ceremony. Asgarpour began his speech by pointing out the importance of the regulatory situation in the field of VOD and the problems that exist in this field: “The status of VOD activities has not changed compared to the previous year in terms of the important concern of regulation, and there are still many uncertainties in this field. has it. We are facing an ecosystem where the regulatory void is legitimately felt. Although there may be an institution that is part of the government and does some sort of regulatory work, we all know what the reality is. Events and decisions in these areas cannot be made by force and must have clear logic and the support of the law.”

The secretary of the association continued: “Many texts were written about three years ago that emphasized the need for a legal aspect in the field of the regulator, many meetings were held in this field, one of which was at the Majlis Research Center. But one of the strange things we encountered in this field was that at the very beginning of the work, everyone stuck to one definition, and that was “universal sound and image”. However, many people thought that the magical alchemy was their own hand, and of course, when they presented the definition, it became clear that their perception had flaws.

Pointing out that the association has prepared and prepared a clear draft of the law regulating online video display, he said: “We are among the few trade organizations that have submitted a draft as a proposal. We tried to reach a clear draft of the regulator with our own understanding and by consulting with friends, so that we would be ready to answer if we were ever questioned, and this text was presented in different places. “Maybe if the balance was upset in the last year, it was because this draft existed, and if it wasn’t, maybe we would have faced a one-way road where a regulatory body could have been the cause of the situation.”

Pointing out that the audience finds their favorite content from platforms these days, he said: “One of the blessings that some of our members realize is that they provide the audience with significant content. For many years, audiences used to watch serials on TV during Ramadan, but for some reasons, the situation is not the same as before, and this responsibility is partially on VODs, and the quantitative and qualitative capacities of these companies are very high.”

In the continuation of this gathering, Asgharpour answered the question of one of the members of the association about Satra’s attempt to expand its field of activity by holding the assembly and forming the council and the association’s measures against it, he said: “Similarly, the same thing happened in the field of cinema. In 1989 and 1990, the officials of the Ministry of Education came to confront the Cinema House and said that your activity is very important to us and we want to be in contact with the artists, but it is better for the guild to leave and recruit people one by one. There they also said that everyone wants to register and it may not be your turn, etc. and this caused a rush among a group of cinematographers. Of course, most cinematographers realized that this form is not legal and did not enter into this trend. As now Satra, which is governed by budget and not by law, works in almost the same way. The broadcasting complex can manage its related internal institutions. Therefore, if Sedavsima plans to have an institution like Satra to regulate the private sector, it must first receive the approval of the parliament. Delegating regulation to any institution requires a law, not a regulation.

He emphasized: “Now the point is that such an institution, which, with legal ambiguities, intends to attract platform activists and organize a general assembly cannot even put a name on this general assembly. The situation is such that an official decides to gather, for example, seven or eight union activists, but since this has no legal basis, the situation can change completely when the next manager comes. Now our colleagues may act hastily and say that we have to go and if we don’t go, the situation will get worse; In the cinema, the result was that the more cinematographers left, the more difficult the situation became.

Asgarpour said: “What is the result of this departure?” Or should the members of the guild be placed in the bottleneck of the production license or show, and do you imagine that these friends will leave such an opportunity in the hands of the platform activists? We have to accept the fact about Satra that the structure is what makes its managers make such decisions.

From a legal point of view, Mehdi Kohian, a lawyer, answered the question raised about Satra’s recent actions: “I will start my talks with statistics about radio and television. The expenses of the Broadcasting Organization in 1401 are 101,119,283 million Rials approved, 97,108,646 million Rials notified, and 88,998,806 million Rials specialized. In the asset acquisition department, amounts have been allocated, which amount to 3,432,661 million Rials.

He continued: “In contrast to the broadcasting, now we have the platforms where we can see how they operate in their field. Here, it is necessary to mention the law against satellite equipment, where tasks were set for the Broadcasting and Guidance Organization to bring people from foreign productions to the interior. and then answer this question, who was more successful in performing this task?”

Kohian explained about the regulation as follows: “The 6th Development Plan has clarified everything and said that the whole matter should be left to NGOs and regulatory organizations from the public sector. Mr. Raisi himself announced the regulations and gave one year to Sadaosima and Ershad to hand over the management and issuing of licenses to non-governmental organizations. We have to wait until February, if no action is taken by then, the organization of the budget program will enter the field. It is the duty of the budget program organization to step in and hand over the responsibility if these do not work.”

Nowrozi, the inspector of the association, also reminded that what can make the guild stronger is the union between the members: “Platforms and companies active in the field of VOD can help each other and make progress by uniting and standing together. There have always been ups and downs, but we must be able to minimize the challenges in the field of regulation. To be able to achieve more success, we need to be together stronger than before. Through these gatherings, members can talk about the problems that have arisen for them, and this sharing of events in the forum can lead to more solid answers.”

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