The T&T Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) has joined with the Advertising Agencies Association (AAAT) to scrutinise closely the quality of advertisements in print and broadcast media. TTPBA president Daren Lee Sing revealed that in a telephone interview yesterday. He was responding to questions on recent advertisements targeting Highway Re-route Movement leader Dr Wayne Kublalsingh and the daily newspapers.
In Tuesday’s and yesterday’s T&T Guardian a group identifying itself as Citizens 4D Highway published ads accusing the media of threatening freedom of expression. This followed condemnation of an advertisement earlier this month designed to look like a news page and including a spoof report on the discovery of a species of reptile called “the kublal”. Lee Sing said the biggest concern over the advertisements was that the advertiser was not properly identified.
“In these ads we don’t know who created them or put them forward. There is no way for the public to have redress if they take offence to the material. “For ads that are political, it is not enough to put an e-mail address. E-mail addresses do not assist the public in identifying the advertiser,” he added. He said the TTPBA and the AAATT were attempting to resolve the issue internally and had discussed the matter with the management of Ross Advertising, who placed the ad on the pro-highway group’s behalf.
He added: “We have already agreed that we would keep a more rigid guard of these ads. The advertising agencies are usually the first line of defence and the media is the last line and we all feel the public must be protected.”
“The core functions of the AAATT include steering honesty and veracity of messages communicated by maintaining and protecting fairness, morality and good taste and encouraging the continued recognition of the social responsibility of advertising generally, and related to state or public welfare particularly.” Lee Sing said the partnership between the organisations had begun earlier this year with the goal of discussing the ethical considerations in publishing before the 2015 general election.
“We had planned to launch publicly with this initiative after Carnival but after the first ‘kublal’ ad we decided that we would begin in November,” he said. Lee Sing said agency management had agreed that the current code of ethics set out by the Bureau of Standards was archaic and needed to be modernised and revisited to reflect the expansion of media to online platforms.
Commenting on the advertiser’s charge that the media was attempting to block the right to freedom of expression, Lee Sing said all the media houses were free to choose where to draw the line.