Vietnam Delays Foreign TV Rules Amid Broadcasting Concern

Vietnam delayed a deadline for implementing new regulations on foreign television channels for a second time, amid concerns the rules could raise costs and restrict access to information in the Communist nation.

The Ministry of Information and Communications will postpone enforcement of the regulations for six months to May 15, Luu Vu Hai, head of the television and radio broadcasting administration said by telephone today. The delay will allow broadcasters more time to “prepare personnel and technical facilities,” he said. The ministry previously extended a deadline of May 15 this year by six months.

The legislation, known as Decision 20, requires international broadcasters to pay state-run media companies to provide translation services for most of their programs. The move has been criticized by industry groups and overseas governments for raising broadcasting costs in Vietnam, and raising the risk of censorship of foreign content, particularly news.

“The burdens of the translation requirement economically, and the burdens of the censorship requirements ethically, are challenges that the international news channels are unable to meet,” said John Medeiros, deputy chief executive officer of CASBAA, a trade group for the pay-television industry in Asia based in Hong Kong. “The regulations impose particularly heavy burdens on news channels for translation and censorship of their content.”