Don’t promote use of electronic cigarettes, I&B Ministry tells media

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Tuesday highlighted the violation of provisions of promoting electronic cigarettes during a business summit here and asked the media to ensure that it does not happen again.

In a notice to all media organisations, including print, electronic and digital, the Ministry said: “It has been brought to the notice by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that in a recently organised Business Summit in New Delhi by a prominent media house, the forum was apparently used to promote electronic cigarettes.”

“Such an action was in violation of Section 4 of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act, 2019 which prohibits advertisements that directly or indirectly promote the use of electronic cigarettes,” it said.

It said that the print, electronic, and digital media entities are “accordingly advised to ensure that the aforementioned statute is not contravened either by way of advertisement or any promotion or other campaigns etc”.