New law totally bans alcoholic beverage ads in all media
BANGKOK: -- Thailand will impose a complete ban on alcohol advertisements in all forms of media as a move to promote good health and reduce road accidents related to drunken-driving, the new Public Health Minister said on Thursday.
Dr. Mongkol na Songkhla, who became interim public health minister early this week, said he expected the new law to be announced within two weeks, but it would come into effect once published in the Royal Gazette.
Similar to an already instituted prohibition on cigarette and tobacco advertisements, the new ban would not permit ads for alcoholic beverages on television or radio, in print media, or in posters and billboards.
''The prohibition will protect people's health and to reduce road accidents,'' said the health minister, claiming evidences in health research as a scientific back-up for the ban.
''During the recent New Year's celebrations, some 600 lives were lost in road accidents,'' he said.
Dr. Mongkol vowed to give birth to another law to protect non-drinking people within a year before the interim government's term ends in October next year.
The new law, he said, would see a strict control on alcohol outlets and an establishment of drinking free zones.
Meanwhile, Dr. Narong Sahamethapat, deputy director of the Department of Disease Control, said he would meet with brewers and advertising agencies to brief them on the new ban but did not elaborate when or where such a meeting might take place.
The Nation
