SRI LANKA: Rights Concern Stalls Tobacco, Alcohol Ad Ban

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

HEALTH-SRI LANKA:  Rights Concern Stalls Tobacco, Alcohol Ad Ban ($$)
by Inter Press Service via NewsEdg
NewsEdge (8887) 
Date: Monday, 2/22/99

COLOMBO - Inter Press Service via NewsEdge Corporation : A proposed ban on 
cigarette and alcohol advertising in the media, strongly opposed by Sri Lankan 
producers, has been delayed because of concerns about its implications on 
fundamental rights, a government minister said.


"We find that the draft legislation paving the way for the ban... is too 
wide in scope and could interfere with some constitutional provisions relating 
to fundamental rights," Prof. Gamini Lakshman Peiris, minister of justice 
and constitutional affairs told IPS.


In addition he said there could be problems regarding foreign investments in 
the tobacco and alcohol industry. The ban was due to be enforced from January 
this year.


Cigarette and liquor manufacturers with foreign collaboration like the island's
biggest beer-maker Ceylon Brewery, have invested millions of rupees in new 
machinery and equipment, much before plans to enforce a ban on ads were known.


Suresh Shah, chief executive of Ceylon Brewery said foreign investors in the 
company had been happy with government policies. "The proposed ban is a 
complete reversal of policy and sending out a very bad signal to overseas 
investors," he said.


An official of the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC), a 
non-governmental agency heading a community campaign against alcohol and drug 
abuse, said that industrial pressure against a ban may have contributed to its 
delay.


"The industry is a very powerful body and they would do whatever is 
necessary, in their interests, to stall the ban or circumvent it," he 
said.


However, Minister Peiris denied suggestions that the government was having 
second thoughts because of opposition from the industry. He said the ban would 
be implemented once the legislation is re-drafted to clear some of the doubts 
expressed.


The proposed advertising ban had been recommended by the Presidential Task 
Force on Tobacco, Alcohol and Illicit drugs, in an effort to reduce the 
consumption of alcohol and tobacco use in Sri Lanka.


The committee was appointed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga in April 1997, 
and later in the same year, it finalised a national policy and programme on 
alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs. Included in that was the advertising ban.


The goal of the policy is to improve the health and well being of all Sri 
Lankans, increase productivity by achieving a sustained reduction in the use of
these substances and a reduction and eventual elimination of harm related to 
these substances, according to a committee document.


Industry officials, opposed to the ban, say any legislation arising out of the 
task force recommendations, would be flawed because it is based on wrong 
information.


"We were never consulted on this issue," says Gottfried Thoma, 
managing director of Ceylon Tobacco Company Ltd., Sri Lanka's monopoly 
cigarette manufacturer and local subsidiary of the transnational 
British-American Tobacco (BAT).


"Before any policy is formulated, it is only right and reasonable that you
hear the views of the other side as well," Thoma told IPS in an interview 
in September last year, adding that a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) 
report disproves government statements that cigarette smoking alone is a 
killer.


According to the WHO report, no estimations for tobacco- attributable mortality
in Sri Lanka are available. "However oral cancer is the most commonest 
form of cancer in the southern part of Asia with over 90 percent attributable 
to prolonged exposure to tobacco and smoking," it said.


A Ceylon Tobacco Company spokesperson said last week that they felt the ban had
been delayed since President Kumaratunga had been unable to chair a promised 
meeting between company officials and members of the task force.


But the committee says that public representation was called for, through the 
media on this issue, and the industry did not respond. "Were they waiting 
for an invitation to present their views?" asked a task force member.


According to current rules, advertising of alcohol and cigarettes is permitted 
in newspapers but restricted on television through a state-imposed code of 
ethnics.


However with an eye on the impending ban, alcohol -- particularly beer 
manufacturers -- and the Ceylon Tobacco company have pumped in money, in recent
months, into giant advertising campaigns and sports sponsorships which would 
also be disallowed.


With the West becoming more health conscious, Asia and South Asia in particular
have become "hunting" grounds for cigarette firms seeking new clients
and expanded markets.


According to Dr Sajeeva Ranaweera, a spokesman for the presidential committee 
that prepared the national policy, tobacco policies in many countries, target 
children who think it is fashionable to smoke, a charge the industry denies.


"Statistics here show that 15 percent of the smokers start before they 
reach 11 years," Ranaweera said in an interview last year.


        
        [Copyright 1999, Inter Press Service]		
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8:04 AM on 2/22/99