The current Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice (the code) was made publicly available on the ACMA’s Register of codes of practice on 18 December 2009 and came into effect on 1 January 2010.
The code covers the matters set out in section 123 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, and other matters relating to program content that are of concern to the community. The code is intended to operate alongside the Authority's standards which regulate programs for children and the Australian content of programs and advertisements.
Development of the code included consultation with government advisory bodies, community interest groups, industry representatives and the public.
The code covers:
- program, commercials, and program promotion classification;
- advertising time on television;
- accuracy, fairness and privacy in news and current affairs;
- disclosure of commercial arrangements in factual programming;
- loudness of advertisements; and
- complaints handling.
The code is available at the Free TV Australia website, www.freetv.com.au. Printed copies of the code are available from Free TV Australia at 44 Avenue Rd, Mosman NSW 2088 Australia. Tel: +61 2 8968 7100. Fax: +61 2 9969 3520.