| Summary: | Background
In 2012, Sri Lankan government announced the enforcement of
Pictorial Health Warnings (PHWs) covering 80% of the cigarette packet. Subsequently
the court reduced it to 60%, after an interim order sought by the industry. In 2015, new
legislation was enforced to cover 80% of cigarette packet by PHWs. The tobacco industry showed its
manipulation against PHWs through media. It was important to study the behavior of median
order to investigate and ensure the enforcement of PHWs.
Methods
Newspaper
articles analysis was the method which used in this study. Four daily
newspapers and 6 weekly
newspapers were selected for the study based on the popularity. Analysis
conducted during January
2013 to June 2014 by using 2376 Newspapers. articles,
cartoons, poems and stories related PHWs were considered and categorized according to
the influence on readers in the analysis to measure the degree of acceptance
for PHWs. In
addition the study focused on Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) responses on PHWs. At the end a
report was shared with media, politicians, policy makers and other responsible personnel to
create a discussion.
Results
The study helped to identify whether the behaviors of politicians,
policy makers, journalists and other related officials who are accountable for enacting
PHWs are negative or positive. There were articles which had negative perception on PHWs and
those were indirectly related with CTC. This analysis proved that the supportive and encouraging
articles related to PHWs were higher than the opposed ones.
Conclusions
This study proves that the majority of the community accepts
the FCTC recommendation of implementing PHWs to create a healthy community for the
development of the country. It also shows that the CTC uses shrewd methods on authoritative
people and institutes who have the decision making powers related to law enforcement, for its
advancement.
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