الاتحاد الكاثوليكي العالمي للصحافة- لبنان اوسيب – لبنان
Antelias, August 25th, 2008
The UCIP – Lebanon has asked the ministers of Health and Information to ban the advertisements related to Alcohol and Tobacco targeting the youth.
The UCIP has asked to reduce the rates of mobile telephones to be in line with international rates, thus making them accessible to all Lebanese citizens.
Hereafter is the text of the statement:
The UCIP is calling the ministers of Health and Information to address the issue of Alcohol and Tobacco advertisements. UCIP considers not acceptable anymore to have such an invasion of our T.V. stations and landscape by those advertisements, especially that they are causing a major harm to our society, to our environment and are impacting negatively the habits of our youth. This is why it is crucial to regulate this activity sector and to apply the required ethics with a complete transparency. The regulations should be similar to those already applied in developed countries caring about the health and well being of their citizens.
The UCIP asked the minister of Telecommunications Mr. Joubran Bassil to reduce the rate of mobile telephones in Lebanon especially that they are the highest in comparison to worldwide rates.Mobile calls are a basic human need and high rates should not constitute a barrier to the growth of this sector. High mobile telephone rates are only a reflection of greed and bad exploitation.Everyone is aware that mobile telephone sector in Lebanon is currently a monopoly which is hindering its growth and prohibiting the reduction of the rates. This is why it is necessary to increase the number of exploitation licenses given to the private companies in order to create a legal and beneficial competition needed by the market. In addition to this, the rates should be based on the cost per second, as applied worldwide, instead of installments based on the fraction of the minute. Such measurements if taken will boost the use of mobile telephones and will increase governments’ profits. They will provide a public service while positively impacting development as well as the human right for interaction and expression.
