REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The government has been urged to issue special regulation on cigarette advertisements in the media such as television, print media, and billboards, an activist has said.
"For example, the regulation should require producers to run pictorial warnings with cigarette ads that show people smoking," Hery Chariansyah, the executive director of the Indonesian Children's Lantern, a non-governmental organization, stated here on Monday.
He remarked that pictorial warnings on the dangers of smoking are currently carried only on cigarette packets and not with advertisements.
"Now, cigarette industries are competing to run ads showing people smoking and thus violating rules," Hery noted on the sidelines of a focus group discussion that was also attended by officials from the health ministry, member on the drug and food supervisory board, representatives from a tobacco control agency, and the regional government of Bogor (West Java).
Hery observed that in the past one year since the introduction of the requirement that pictorial health warnings be carried along with ads, no action has been taken against its violation.
"There has been no sanction until now. When the public protest, all they say is that it not their responsibility," he added.
The government has issued Government Regulation (PP) No. 109/2012 on the protection of health from the addictive substance of tobacco. It specifies the requirement to put pictorial health warnings on tobacco product ads.
However, the PP does not specify who is responsible for ensuring pictorial health warnings on cigarettes ads or what kind of pictures should be displayed.
He pointed out that the display of pictures of cigarettes and people smoking is a violation of the Broadcasting Law, Press Law, Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), and PP No.109/2012.
According to Hery, KPI should have imposed sanction on broadcast ad violators, while the Press Council should have acted against print ad violators, and the regional government should have taken action against the violators of outdoor media norms. However, they have all ignored violations.
The government has issued Government Regulation No. 109/2012 and Health Minister Regulation (Permenkes) No. 28/2013 that require the cigarette industry to display a health advisory with five kinds of graphic warning.
Beginning June 24, 2014, cigarette packets have carried pictorial warnings with the images of people suffering from different tobacco-related diseases such as oral, gangrene, mouth, neck, and lung cancers.
The pictorial warnings on cigarette packets were expected to effectively reduce the number of smokers and prevent young people from getting into the habit of smoking, then Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi had once said.
Initially, the government planned to put some 20 different pictures on cigarette packs. Then a survey was conducted by health experts on which pictures had the intended effect and discouraged people from smoking.
The government carried written warnings both on cigarette packets and billboards for years. However, Indonesians remain the world's heaviest smokers, even though they know that smoking is injurious to health, she added.
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