BEIRUT: The Information Ministry urged all media outlets Wednesday to halt their advertising of herbal and nutritional products which have been portrayed as cures for various diseases.
Following months of public accusations about the safety and legality of the products, which are manufactured locally or imported, authorities last week inched closer to possible action against what they called the “illegal herbal medicine” sector.
Caretaker Information Minister Tarek Mitri called on all television and radio stations that have been violating the law to immediately cease broadcasting ads for products labeled as herbal by their manufacturers.
“The advertising of illegal herbal medicine, which does not have any license or approval from the Health Ministry, should stop,” Mitri said in a letter to the media. “All media outlets should abide by Lebanon’s pharmaceutical laws in accordance with the recent decisions adopted by the Health Ministry and the National Audiovisual Media Council,” Mitri added.
Last week, the Health Ministry revoked the investment license of an herbal manufacturing factory owned by Zein al-Atat. The decision came after caretaker Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh agreed with Parliament’s Health Committee to label the herbal products as medicine, and cancel the companies’ permits.
Meanwhile, the National Audiovisual Media Council lashed out at television and radio stations that have ignored previous warnings and persisted in advertising herbal medicine marketed by Zein al-Atat and Amanacare, the two most popular dealers in the so-called nutritional products.
“The council set a deadline of 10 days for the media to stop their advertising of these products … in the event they continue to air the ads, Article 35 of the [1994] Audiovisual Media Law will be implemented by the Information Ministry, by temporarily shutting down the channels for three days,” said a statement released by the council.
Later during the day, Amanacare notified the Health Ministry of the company’s decision to stop its advertising campaign. Amanacare notified the authorities that they have asked all television channels to halt all ads related to their products as of March 1.
However, its competing company, which was the most advertised product of the year 2010, Zein al-Atat, has not yielded to the officials demands made by the ministries.
Mustafa Atat, a spokesperson for the firm, told The Daily Star the firm would comment and announce its stance during a news conference next week.
For its part, MTV told The Daily Star that its administration had decided to halt its ads as of March 1, while Al-Jadeed and NBN expressed skepticism about the government’s decision.
“There are beauty products being advertised and are made by the herbal products industry … so we need to make sure that we take the appropriate decision,” said an NBN official, who added that the station’s board would meet to decide on the matter. – Additional reporting byAshraf Monzer
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