Research Center’s Recommendations for SATRA’s Operation: From Defining Duties to Determining Penalties for Platforms

The Parliamentary Research Center has published a draft law regarding the dimensions of regulating pervasive audiovisual media services in the virtual space.

According to IDEA, this draft outlines the responsibilities, scope of authority, and activities of the regulatory body. Additionally, the text provided by the research center emphasizes the necessity of establishing a commission and council within the organization to improve regulation. The draft also includes recommendations for the regulatory body regarding violations in the field of pervasive audiovisual media and suggested penalties for offenders.

The research center’s report has identified the most important dimensions of regulation in the field of pervasive audiovisual media in seven categories

1. Regulatory Framework

2. Regulatory Approaches

3. Public Interest and Broad Objectives

4. Scope and Regulatory Domain

5. Implementation and Enforcement of Regulation

6. Regulatory Domains

7. Evaluation and Oversight of Regulation.

The first chapter of this report is dedicated to the principles of regulation. According to the research center’s report, by employing these principles, the indicators of the health of regulation can be significantly improved. As the Parliament’s Research Center states, the legality and legitimacy are the first indicators of regulation. In this report, it is mentioned that an effective regulator operates when their actions are conditional and compliant with legal rules.

Independence and impartiality of the regulatory authority, meaning the non-interference of regulatory decisions by market participants, is another principle of regulation. From the perspective of the Parliament’s researchers, transparency in the regulatory process while safeguarding data is another principle. Publishing procedures, accessibility to decisions, and accountability to the public are ways to increase the transparency of the regulatory authority.

The research center’s report has also proposed principles of regulation for pervasive audiovisual media in the virtual space. These principles include freedom of expression and dissemination of ideas within the framework of Islamic principles, prioritizing public interests, responsiveness to stakeholders, and employing specialized approaches.

In a section of the draft, the duties and missions of the organization regulating audiovisual media content are mentioned. Supporting the rights of the audience and users of pervasive audiovisual media, developing new data-driven monitoring technologies, and involving grassroots organizations in the regulatory processes are examples of the tasks outlined in the Parliament’s report for this organization.

The section regarding the regulatory authority’s jurisdiction in regulating pervasive audiovisual media in the virtual space is also covered in the draft. Production, provision, and dissemination of content, quality, service delivery methods, specialized devices and technologies, and commercial advertising within the realm of pervasive audiovisual media in the virtual space fall under the jurisdiction of this organization.

Compulsory establishment of a commission – The proposed solution by the Research Center Furthermore, based on the draft presented by this center, a commission should be established under the title of the Commission for Regulating Regulations of Pervasive Audiovisual Media in the Virtual Space. Approval of regulations and proposed bylaws of the organization, reviewing and approving the structure, processes, and budget of the organization, and determining the criteria for pervasive audiovisual media are examples of the tasks of this commission. The composition of this commission indicates that the Parliament’s Research Center has disregarded the presence of the private sector in the commission members and has limited it to only one representative from this sector. Additionally, nearly half of the members in this composition are from the government body.

In another part of the draft, violations in the field of pervasive audiovisual media are mentioned. Producing and disseminating content without permission from the organization, live broadcasting without permission from the organization, violating user rights, and misleading advertising are examples of violations mentioned in this draft. Furthermore, the draft specifies penalties for offenders in this field. One of these penalties is the imposition of technical and service restrictions for a period of one week to three months. It seems that the Research Center, while addressing such penalties, did not consider user rights, which it had previously referred to as a form of violation. This is because when a platform is filtered, the first thing not considered is the rights of the users.