Vietnam: Draft film order (submitted for review by the Ministry of Justice)

in a nutshell

With the enactment of the new Cinema Law 2022, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) is preparing a draft decree to guide the Cinema Law (SeeCabinet Order Draft”). After a month-long public consultation period, the MOCST substantially updated the draft Decree and submitted an updated version (Seeversion 4”) to the Ministry of Justice for an appraisal. The content of version 4 reflects most of the comments and recommendations put forward by industry stakeholders, demonstrating how effective and impactful policy recommendations can be.

Compared to the published version of the draft Decree, Version 4 introduces the following notable amendments:

1. Conditions for self-classifying movies in cyberspace

The requirement for offshore entities to establish economic organizations and conclude business cooperation agreements has been abolished. Therefore, only the following conditions apply:

• Having a film classification committee, technical software or other mechanism for classifying films according to Vietnamese film classification rules, and being responsible for the film classification results;
• There are plans to revise and update the classification results for movies as requested by MOCST (Movie Division).Management tools should help classify movies according to each criterion and display them flexibly [the classification results] Immediately after the movie classification is updated
• Have a technical plan and process in place to temporarily suspend and remove films in response to MOCST (Motion Picture Division) requests. After receiving a film removal request, the operator must run the removal process in the administration tool.

Film disseminators simply need to explain these conditions to the MOCST (Motion Picture Division) when applying for self-classification of films in cyberspace.

Despite the necessary changes, certain newly introduced terms (administrative tools, operators, etc.) remain undefined, making some requirements relatively obscure.

Suppose a movie disseminator is allowed to self-categorize movies in cyberspace. During the post-mortem examination of a film circulated in cyberspace, if the film classification results are inconsistent with those of the Film Division, the following provisions shall apply.

• Film disseminators are required to revise and update their film classification results as requested by the Film Department.
• If a movie’s classification results do not match the results in the Films category, it is considered not meeting the criteria for self-classification of the movie (for movies of type P, T18, T16, and T13). or twice a year (for type C films). Film disseminators must ask the MOCST or an institution accredited by MOCST to classify the film.
• After 3 months, if the film self-classification criteria are fully met, the film disseminator must submit an explanatory report.

2. Parental control

Version 4 clarifies examples of the necessary technical measures that online movie distributors must implement to ensure that parents/legal guardians can control and restrict access to their children’s movies. I’m here.

• There are mechanisms for multi-user accounts, including reserved accounts for children, accounts must be password-protected, verification mechanisms when switching between accounts, and reporting to the administrator of the viewing history and behavior of children’s accounts. there is a mechanism.Account holder
• A message indicating age verification is displayed when visiting movies labeled as not for children
• Other measures of a similar nature

3. Handling User Complaints

The 48-hour time limit for processing your complaint applies only to complaints that are specifically and clearly justified and accompanied by your contact details.

4. Film Development Support Fund (“Film Fund”)

Due to strong opposition from businesses, MOCST is proposing to remove the provisions of the Motion Picture Fund from the draft decree, suggesting that the sources of the motion picture fund be carefully considered and regulated in a separate decree.

Having said that, the Motion Picture Fund has not yet been removed from the draft Decree, and version 4 introduces the following amendments:

• Subscription fees for films distributed across borders have been removed from the Fund’s funding sources.
• Specific deduction rates for each source have been removed.
• A new source has been added: revenues from companies and units operating in television and motion picture film copyrights.

5. effective date

The provisions on the dissemination of cinema in cyberspace (Articles 12-15) and on digital platform and telecommunications network companies (Articles 16-17) will come into force on 1 January 2024. Compliance with these provisions.