Print media study on communicate misleading information by tobacco industry
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Alcohol and Drug Information Center (ADIC), Library & Information, Sri Lanka
Publication date: 2018-03-01
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 1):A665
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KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background and challenges to implementation:
Objectives of this study are to; identify the
new tactics of Ceylon Tobacco Company(CTC) making fabrications through media in
order to decelerate the implementation of tobacco tax policies. It is proven that one of best sustainable
tobacco control method is to hike cigarettes tax which reduces cigarette
consumption. 2016, Sri Lankan government increased cigarettes tax thrice as
never done before. CTC tried to demolish this effort by fabricating as they
done before.
Intervention or response:
4 daily and 6 weekly different national
newspapers which are highest circulation were selected. From 2016 January to
2017 June 2376 newspapers were analyzed in this study. The impact of perception on reader by articles,
advertisement, cartoon, poem and stories of the implementation of tobacco tax
hike were categorized. Under the category; reduction of smokers, discourage of
smoking, increment of bidi smoking due to high price of cigarette, highlighting
and pointing out that government loos the tax due to illegal cigarette,
fabrication of stories that, if cigarette company shut down the number of
families are more who lost their jobs and CTS's image building were identified.
The reports were sent to media institutes,
politicians, policy makers and relevant authorities and made a dialogue among
them.
Results and lessons learnt:
Identified fabricated and spread myths by CTC
are; cigarette price hike turn smokers to bidi which is bad for health, illegal
cigarettes will be common, if the company shut down government will be lost
huge amount of tax. It also helped to identify the behavior is positive or
negative of key persons in the country, media personnel, politician and policy
makers. Further it revealed the media and persons who supported to CTC.
Discourage the increment of cigarette tax were reported.
Conclusions and key recommendations:
This study helped to confirm that CTC make fabrications and spread
them to demolish the law and regulations on tobacco tax hike.