Buhari govt to enforce the law banning smoking in movies

The federal government, with stakeholders in the movie and entertainment industry, plans to enforce the law banning smoking in movies.

Adedayo Thomas, Executive Director of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), made this known on Saturday at a stakeholders’ roundtable in Lagos.

The roundtable focused on the National Tobacco Control Act 2015 and the National Tobacco Control Regulations 2019 in Lagos, as they relate to the movie and entertainment industry.

Mr Thomas said the engagement is geared towards ensuring that practitioners in the movie industry adhered to no-smoking laws in Nigerian movies, among other relevant laws of the country.

The meeting was hosted by the NFVCB and with technical support from the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA).

The NFVCB boss noted that the board and the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture were worried about the growing evidence linking the entertainment industry with the increasing tobacco use and its impact on public health.

He stated that NFVCB prioritised classification of movies with smoking scenes and tobacco depiction and would ensure these were fully enforced.

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Mr Thomas said the existing national legislation does not sufficiently capture the emerging alternative products of tobacco, such as E-cigarettes, Shisha, among others.

He advised the NASS, Ministry of Health and other authorities to involve the movie industry players in their engagement so as to be on the same page in the implementation of the legislation.

He said “stakeholders observed that smoking in movies and the entertainment sector is a pathway to young people embracing smoking.

“The tobacco industry uses sophisticated marketing mix to promote smoking on set and in the entertainment sector.

“Entertainment stakeholders are deliberately targeted by the tobacco industry either through financial inducement, misinformation, and other subtle approaches to further the glamorisation of smoking in the movies and entertainment sector.

“Awareness on the dangers of smoking in movies and the entertainment sector in the digital media space is still low,” he said.

According to him, NFVCB would escalate its awareness creation and education among relevant stakeholders in the movies and entertainment sectors to ensure compliance with national laws.

He cited the NTC Act 2015 and the NTC Regulations 2019 in relation to the ban on tobacco advertising promotion and sponsorships.

He promised that the NFVCB would continue to work with relevant stakeholders to put in place adequate measures to ensure that the environment remains conducive to growing the film industry.

Veterans, as well as young actors and actresses, were also present to brainstorm on the prevalence of smoking scenes in movies.

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