JEP wins EASA gold for including external stakeholders in its jury
14 May 2008 - In the 5th edition of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) Best
Practice Gold Award was presented to the Belgian self-regulatory organisation
- Jury de l’Ethique Publicitaire (JEP). The prestigious prize was awarded for the
JEP’s comprehensive overhaul of its complaints jury composition. Since
January 2008, the Belgian complaints jury has been divided into two equal
parts representing both the advertising industry and lay experts
Including lay experts into the complaint adjudication process is one of the key criteria
of the EASA Best Practice Recommendation on Jury Composition to ensure
impartiality of the complaints jury. It also forms part of the ten commitments made by
the advertising industry to the European Commission in signing the EASA Self-
Regulation Charter in 2004.
On receiving the gold award, Karin Laes, Secretary General of JEP proudly
explained that the JEP has worked hard over the past two years to reposition the
JEP as a pro-active and transparent organisation. “The new jury composition will
ensure outward credibility and increase trust in the system”, she added. “Winning the
Best Practice Gold Award is an acknowledgement of the hard work done so far and
inspires us to perform even better.”
The Advertising Standards Council India won the silver award for its outstanding
campaign to get the Indian government to acknowledge self-regulation and provide
sufficient legal backstop. The campaign was supported by a strong awareness
campaign for the self regulatory organisation (SRO)
The Bronze Award was presented to AUTOCONTROL, the Spanish SRO for its exceptional work on the
Spanish PAOS code, which lays down stringent rules under which food and nonalcoholic
beverages can be advertised to children – an initiative which has been
applauded by several institutions including the WHO and the European Commission.
EASA Director General Oliver Gray remarked that “the fact that we’ve had award
winning entries from across both our European network and other areas of the globe
demonstrates how our best practice is being taken up”.
The awards were judged by a panel of EASA industry members. One of the jury
members, Dominic Lyle of the European Association of Communications Agencies,
commented that “it’s encouraging to see the EASA recommendations on Best
Practice becoming reality in so many markets – the winners of these Awards are an
inspiration to everyone who is serious about self-regulation”. The Australian initiative
to introduce a straightforward online complaints screening form was judged to be an
easy-to-copy best practice initiative.
The awards were presented on 8 May in Madrid during a three-day series of
meetings, which brought together representatives of EASA´s 48 members and which
were kindly hosted by the Spanish SRO AUTOCONTROL.