TV, Net tobacco ads face WHO ire

Cross-border advertising, among the few remaining means available to cigarette companies to advertise their wares without violating laws, is something World Health Organisation (WHO) has trained its sights on in its battle against tobacco.

Banned tobacco-product advertisements on satellite television channels that are beamed across borders and the Internet are among the media that WHO is actively trying to censor with the help of technology experts, Dr Douglas Bettcher, Coordinator of the Framework Convention Unit in the Tobacco Free Initiative, told PTI.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Global Youth Meet on health here, he said despite India banning tobacco-related advertisements, they could still be viewed on channels beamed from countries that had not taken up the guidelines prescribed by the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). For the Internet, WHO is considering methods like blurring images or getting countries to block websites to not allow access to the advertisements.

For television channels, one of the suggestions was delayed beaming of the channels so that countries could monitor and censor the banned content. "However, the success of the WHO's efforts will be highly dependent on political and legal will on the part of member governments," Bettcher said.

He acknowledged that with countries like the US not banning tobacco-related advertisements, it would be difficult to control their propagation over media like the Internet.