Sýn says media oversight has failed

Icelandic media company Sýn has sharply criticised the Media Commission’s oversight of public broadcaster RÚV’s advertising activity, saying the market is effectively subject to “double oversight”, mbl.is reports.

In a submission to Alþingi’s General and Education Affairs Committee on a bill concerning the operating environment for media, Sýn said complaints it filed against RÚV in October and December last year over alleged breaches were still being considered. It also said the commission had not initiated a single case between 2022 and 2025 concerning the legality of RÚV’s activity in the advertising market.

“In practice, there is double oversight of the media market. On the one hand, the Media Commission is slow and ineffective in overseeing RÚV’s aggressive advertising activity. At the same time, it takes up cases against privately owned media outlets one after another, often on its own initiative, and concludes them quickly with administrative fines,” Páll Ásgrímsson, Sýn’s chief legal officer, told Morgunblaðið.

Ásgrímsson said this further weakened the competitive position of private media. He also criticised RÚV for setting its own rules on advertising and sponsorship, saying it was contrary to basic principles of administrative law for an institution subject to legal advertising restrictions to set and interpret its own rules on those restrictions.

Sýn also alleges that RÚV has made general discussion and entertainment programmes slightly longer than 60 minutes to meet legal requirements for inserting advertising breaks. It cited The Week with Gísli Marteinn and Landsleikir as examples.

Sýn wants RÚV’s authority to sell sponsorship for programmes and interrupt them with advertising breaks removed entirely. It also wants the broadcaster barred from setting its own rules on advertising and programme sponsorship.