Article 23 of the Saudi Audiovisual Media Law

This article concerns the Implementing Regulations, the reference the Law refers to in many places, such as the types of licenses and their conditions in Article 8, the controls on selling a license in Article 9, and the dispute settlement procedures in Article 12.

The article sets:

• Who issues the regulations: the Minister, meaning the Minister of Culture and Information under Article 1.
• On what basis: a proposal from the Board, meaning the Authority's board of directors.
• The deadline: within 90 days of the date the Law takes effect.
• Publication: they are published in the Official Gazette.
• Implementing decisions: the Minister also issues the decisions needed to implement the Law's provisions.

An important note on counting: the deadline for issuing the regulations runs from the date the Law takes effect, not from the date of its publication. Article 24 provides that the Law takes effect 90 days after the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. So the Law takes effect first, and the regulations are issued within 90 days after that.

This differs from other laws where the regulations are issued before the law takes effect or together with it. The practical effect is that anyone looking into the details of any obligation the Law refers to "the regulations" should refer to these regulations that the Minister issues.