JEDDAH: The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) health ministers are studying proposals that would regulate all health-related advertisements, in a bid to protect the public from unqualified and greedy operators.
Tawfiq Khoja, director general of the body’s executive, said a committee is studying a proposal to produce a set of standards on advertisements that would be followed by all six GCC nations — Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, a local publication reported on Monday.
The committee is seeking to issue the first edition of a guide entitled “The guiding booklet for health advertisements,” which goes under the slogan “Together toward balanced and objective Gulf health advertisements,” a local publication reported.
Khoja said that there is currently little control over what kind of health advertisements are published in the media. There is no double checking done of the qualifications of those offering all sorts of treatments. This was of great danger to the public, which could result in people being maimed or killed, or cost them huge sums of money for little benefit, he said.
He said the GCC committee has data showing that a large proportion of health advertisements are harmful to the health of people. There was therefore a need to develop a standardized set of regulations, he said. The guide would be submitted to the GCC health ministers and their ministries of media and information, so that each country can ensure that all providers abide by rules requiring the ethical provision of health treatment, he said.
Tawfiq Khoja, director general of the body’s executive, said a committee is studying a proposal to produce a set of standards on advertisements that would be followed by all six GCC nations — Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, a local publication reported on Monday.
The committee is seeking to issue the first edition of a guide entitled “The guiding booklet for health advertisements,” which goes under the slogan “Together toward balanced and objective Gulf health advertisements,” a local publication reported.
Khoja said that there is currently little control over what kind of health advertisements are published in the media. There is no double checking done of the qualifications of those offering all sorts of treatments. This was of great danger to the public, which could result in people being maimed or killed, or cost them huge sums of money for little benefit, he said.
He said the GCC committee has data showing that a large proportion of health advertisements are harmful to the health of people. There was therefore a need to develop a standardized set of regulations, he said. The guide would be submitted to the GCC health ministers and their ministries of media and information, so that each country can ensure that all providers abide by rules requiring the ethical provision of health treatment, he said.
