Story from Indonesia: the media advocacy strategy on restraining ´The Tobacco Bill Draft´
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National Commission for Tobacco Control Indonesia, Indonesia
Publication date: 2018-03-01
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 1):A55
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ABSTRACT
Background and challenges to implementation:
Strong tobacco industry interference
continued to influence the implementation of adequate tobacco control policy in
Indonesia. Labours and farmers issues were overly used to mislead public and to
challenge tobacco control policies. In 2009, Indonesia passed its Health Law. One
of its translation is The Government Law on Tobacco Control, issued in 2012.
This law is Indonesia's most comprehensive tobacco control regulation up-to-this
date. Following that event, still in 2012, the People's Parliaments (DPR) initiated The Tobacco Bill Draft, which was loaded with tobacco industry's
interest, solely aim to increase cigarette production. Since then, civil
societies have been fighting to restrain DPR from passing the bill.
Intervention or response:
The
National Commission for Tobacco Control (NCTC) Indonesia continuously built
strong and proactive communication strategies through media advocacy and open access
to information. The efforts challenged manipulating facts and black campaigns
that aim to mislead public opinion for industry's favour. NCTC closely
monitored progress and setback about bill and informed media through press
conferences, briefings, and fact sheets production. As a result, media coverage that support tobacco control increased significantly. In-depth investigative articles produced by national media emerged. Public messages about tobacco control shifted into positive tone.
Results and lessons learnt:
In early
2017, The Tobacco Bill Draft was listed again by DPR as The Priority List for National
Legislation (Prolegnas). In respond to this critical situation, NCTC Indonesia
generated rigorous media advocacy efforts which resulted in 66 news articles
and collected more than 25,000 online petition within two months (January to
March 2017). In three consecutive days, three in-depth stories against The
Tobacco Bill Draft were published at the front page of Indonesian newspaper largest
chain.
Conclusions and key recommendations:
This
efforts contributed to the bill's expulsion from Prolegnas by the executive
government in March 2017. This shows that effective and robust media campaign
could shift political decision towards tobacco control.
CITATIONS (1):
1.
Health taxes in Indonesia: a review of policy debates on the tobacco, alcoholic beverages and sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in the media
Abdillah Ahsan, Nadira Amalia, Krisna Puji Rahmayanti, Nadhila Adani, Nur Hadi Wiyono, Althof Endawansa, Maulida Gadis Utami, Adela Miranti Yuniar
BMJ Global Health