Analysis of media reports to understand tobacco industry tactics in undermining tobacco tax policies in Bangladesh

摘要

Background Mass media plays an important role in influencing tobaccocontrol policies. The tobacco industry also uses the mass media to promotetheir products and undermine tobacco control policies, in particular tobaccotax policies. To understandthe tactics of tobacco industry to prevent effective tobacco tax policiesthrough analyzing media reports on tobacco tax issues during the budgetdiscussion in Bangladesh.Methods The study analyses tobacco related reports published inmore than twenty national newspapers in Bangladesh during April-May of 2015 andMay-June of 2016. Both Quantitative and qualitative analysis focused on thecontents and number of the stories.Results The studyshows that 290 reports out of 1398 reports during this time focused on smugglingby tobacco industries to mislead the policy makers and public with the messagethat increasing tobacco taxes may lead to increase in the smuggling. While allthe newspapers studied published stories on smuggling of tobacco products, theanti-tobacco news were not found in all those newspapers. Most of theanti-tobacco reports are event news and lack specific contents on tobacco taxrelated issues. Whereas the stories supporting tobacco industry position toprevent tax increase include very specific statistics to influence the taxpolicy makers. Only 58 stories focused on real tobacco taxation from tobaccocontrol perspective, whereas 110 stories support the position of tobaccoindustry.Conclusions Accurate information and statistics need to be providedto the policy makers to counter the influence of stories on tobacco smugglingmyths. The anti-tobacco events should have very clear and specific demands oneffective tobacco tax policies and under understanding of tobacco controlactivists on tobacco tax issues needs to be enhanced. Understanding and skills of journalists for reporting on tobacco tax issues need to be sharpened.