The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Tightening controls on tobacco use

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 03, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Tightening controls on tobacco use

The World No Tobacco Day has been observed annually on May 31 since 1988, but this year's event is the first after the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) came into force. The FCTC, an international treaty signed by 168 member-states of the United Nations and the European Community, marked an important milestone in the campaign against tobacco use. It was the first global initiative to check the tobacco menace and the treaty's provisions — which oblige signatories to restrict tobacco advertising and sponsorship and prevent smoking in public places — were given the force of binding law. World No Tobacco Days have traditionally been woven around particular themes and this year the attention is on health professionals and tobacco control. Health professionals (a mega category comprising doctors, nurses, midwives, psychologists, pharmacists, and others in health-related professions) can play a vital role in helping people quit the deadly habit and by warning children and adolescents about the dangers of smoking. In India and elsewhere, organisations of health professionals have marked the event by drawing up codes to reject the support of the tobacco industry, prevent smoking in their offices and institutions, and help their patients stop smoking.

India is a signatory to the FCTC and the Central Government's vigorous campaign against tobacco use — led by the Union Ministry of Health under Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss — deserves to be commended for its unquestionable sincerity and commitment. However, in its May 31 notification, further amending the rules under The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, the Centre has gone way over the top in banning the display or use of tobacco products in cinema and television. Films explore the entire gamut of human behaviour — foibles, weaknesses, excesses, depravities, and so on. Their purpose is not always to idealise people but to reveal them in a truthful and convincing manner. Should violence and crime be banned from the screen merely because of the far-from conclusive belief that they may encourage such activities?

A blanket ban on tobacco use in films would — both ironically and counter-productively — make it illegal to depict how someone suffered or died from smoking too much! The Centre's overenthusiasm is also reflected in the regulation that makes it mandatory for health warnings to be scrolled in scenes with smoking situations. Finally, the rule requiring all logos of tobacco products to be cropped or masked whenever they form part of a frame aired through the electronic media is an impractical and unjustifiable restriction. It would inhibit the coverage of a live sporting event such as Formula 1, where cars and racing overalls of drivers often contain brand names of cigarettes. This is a direct infringement on the freedom of the media. The Government's ostensible power to do so is derived from Section 5 of the Tobacco Control Act, which fails to distinguish between an advertisement of a tobacco product and a news report. The Centre must immediately withdraw this impractical and ill-considered notification. It must also ensure that the regulations regarding indirect advertisements of tobacco products are not used to inhibit the press and the electronic media from covering newsworthy events.

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