Bahrain media sector call to end advertising ventures by vloggers

TDT | Manama                                                             

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter 

The media and advertising sector representatives in Bahrain are calling fora strict action against independent vloggers, who are allegedly venturing into the commercial advertisement space without obtaining legal Commercial Registration (CR) certificates.  

They claim that these vloggers are destroying the advertising space by “doing vlogs at cheapest rates, even at times threatening the existence of media and advertisement houses in Bahrain.”

According to them, these Vloggers are benefitting from the fast transition that is taking place in the mass communication sector, which is a shift from print to digital, pioneered by the social media platforms. 

“More and more brands and companies in the Kingdom are signing up with these Vloggers without knowing that the activity amounts to an illegal one. We are not against these Vloggers. But we want them to follow the legal route like us. Let them rent a commercial space and obtain a CR first and pay VAT according to their revenues.

And then it becomes a level-playing field and we are willing to compete with them fairly in the existing space,” a media industry representative told The Daily Tribune.    Many Vloggers are seen reviewing products of different hypermarkets, supermarkets as well as brand lines and it is learnt that they are paid for the act, making it a commercial activity. “It is illegal for anyone to carry out a commercial activity without obtaining a commercial licence and I want the authorities to urgently look into the matter,” he added.  

Saudi Arabia recently enacted laws to restrict Vloggers engaging in commercial activities. All Saudi Vlogs are licensed and require a registration. Saudi authorities can shut down Vloggers’ operations if they are found violating any of the laws of the land. 

Under the latest list of regulations in the country, any operators of news blogs, mobile phone content creators or operators of news sites in Saudi Arabia have to be Saudi citizens, at least 20 years old and possess a high school degree. Blogs are now legally classified as “electronic publishing” and news blogs are now subject to the same legal regulations as newspapers.    Vlog stands for a video blog or video log, and refers to a type of blog where most or all of the content is in a video format.

Vlog posts consist of creating a video where the Vlogger talks on a particular subject such as reporting or reviewing a product or an event. It can even serve as a way to share your knowledge on the product or provide a tutorial guide on a creative practice or topic.

Some vloggers even use it as a means to share new product lines by different brands, food reviews as well as other commercial activities. The term vlog is also used by video streamers or Youtuber’s who don’t use a blog but post scheduled updates via other means like YouTube and other video websites; their profile often promotes them as vloggers. Vloggers also do live broadcasts from social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram.