[Intl-tobacco] Czech Republic: Senate only partly limits tobacco ads

[Robert Weissman]

Senate only partly limits tobacco ads

by Source: Czech News Agency, March 15, 2002
Source: Hoover's, 2002-03-15
PRAGUE, March 15 (CTK) - 

The Senate today passed with a narrow
margin of votes a bill which partly limits advertisement for tobacco
products.

Despite the effort of mainly Christian Democrat (KDU-CSL) senators,
who wanted to ban tobacco ads at all, the upper house passed the
bill on advertisement regulation in the version passed by the
Chamber of Deputies.

The bill was passed mainly thanks to the votes of the ruling Social
Democrats (CSSD) and the opposition Civic Democrats (ODS), who are
bound by a power-sharing opposition agreement. Out of the 57
senators present 29 voted for the bill.

If the law is also signed by the president, billboards promoting
tobacco products will be allowed to be placed at least 300 metres
from elementary and secondary schools and cigarette producers will
have to place the warning on the harmful effects of smoking on 20
percent of a box of cigarettes. At present the warning covers half
this size.

All the boxes have to say explicitly as of June 1, when the law is
to take effect, that "The Health Ministry warns: smoking causes
cancer." At present the ministry's warning differs.

Under the law, tobacco ads must not be aimed at people under 18 and
only people over 25 can appear in them.

The KDU-CSL based its effort to ban the ads on a recommendation by
the World Health Organisation (WHO), whose member the Czech Republic
is.

"Limitation of advertisement for tobacco products is ineffective
unless it is absolute," KDU-CSL deputy chairman Milan Simonovsky
said.

According to health committee chairwoman Zuzana Roithova (KDU-CSL),
"we will face the problem again in a few months when we will be
passing the change in order to adopt a new European norm."

The law also toughens the conditions for advertisement promoting
excessive use of medicine and alcohol. Under the law, such
advertisement must not focus on underage people and must not arouse
the impression that people are successful and will have better
social position under the influence of alcohol.

The law also bans to use pornography, attacks on political
conviction and discrimination against race and gender in
advertisements.

It explicitly bans false and hidden advertisement and sets exact
conditions for advertisements in which one product is compared with
another one.

tam/dr/vv