Liquor advert bans will hurt print media
Proposed amendments to the draft Liquor Amendment Bill under consideration by the Department of Trade and Industry will see the banning of print advertising of all alcohol products including inserts and pamphlets as well as a ban on digital and social media advertising. Such a provision would have a devastating effect on print media. /
Proposed amendments to the draft Liquor Amendment Bill, under consideration by the Department of Trade and Industry, will result in a ban on all print advertising of all alcohol products — including inserts and pamphlets as well as a ban on all digital and social media advertising.
If enacted, such a provision would have a devastating effect on the print media. Banning inserts of alcohol adverts in newspapers alone would mean a revenue loss of R260m a year, according to the South African Liquor Brandowners’ Association (Salba).
Salba is still evaluating the effects of a proposed ban on newspaper advertisements as well as on internet, social media, cinema and movie advertising as proposed in the draft bill.
In the original draft published in September in 2016 for public comment, only the inclusion of alcohol advertisements as inserts in publications was targeted.
The department’s acting deputy director-general, MacDonald Ntshetenzhe, confirmed the proposed change on Wednesday, with the department’s chief director of liquor policy Clementine Makaepea saying that the change was necessary to prevent consumers from being enticed into consuming alcohol.
The draft bill would have to define “print media” to include advertisements on the pages of a newspaper or magazine as well as inserts.
Salba chairman Sibani Mngadi said the proposal, which was a “big disappointment” to Salba, was included in the draft bill submitted to the National Economic Development and Labour Council.
Salba, he said, regretted that none of its proposals had been accepted by the department, which hopes to submit the final draft of the bill to the Cabinet by May.
Mngadi said the association had submitted clear evidence that newspaper readers in SA were almost all older than 18 years. “We thought the issue was to protect the young,” he said in an interview.
Salba did not know how banning alcohol advertising on the internet would be practical because information could originate from outside SA. It also did not know whether online purchasing of wine and other liquor — an important platform for exports — would be permitted.
“It is very disturbing,” Mngadi said. Salba was also concerned that no socioeconomic impact assessment had been undertaken to look into the implications of the proposals.
THE DRAFT BILL WOULD HAVE TO DEFINE PRINT MEDIA TO INCLUDE ADVERTISEMENTS ON THE PAGES OF A NEWSPAPER OR MAGAZINE
Salba was due to hold a media briefing on Wednesday on the draft bill, but this was postponed “in the light of very recent alterations [to the] draft Liquor Amendment Bill”.
“Salba members must study these alterations before commenting publicly on them,” a media release said.
Other proposals in the latest draft are that people below the age of 21 years can be employed in the manufacturing or sale of alcohol even though it increases the legal age of drinking from 18 to 21 years. However, they will not be able to own a business that serves or sells alcohol.
Mngadi said this undermined the policy of promoting economic participation.