President of the Arts and Tourism Writers Association of Ghana, George Quaye has bemoaned the manner in which the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) issued its directive against alcoholic beverage endorsement by celebrities.
The actor and media personality said the FDA did not consult stakeholders in the creative space before issuing such directive.
For this reason, George Quaye believes this is a prejudice against celebrities.
“It’s clear there has been a prejudice against ‘who popular people are’ at the very beginning. I am definitely sure there were no consultations and clearly there are people that work on this that do not even know our space,” he said on 3FM Sunrise on Thursday June 20.
He noted that that stakeholders are open and willing to further engage the FDA on this directive.
“I’m happy that he himself has said there are still opportunities to engage. We will look forward to that engagement.
“I am happy that he has agreed that there can be conversations around this because I still insist that none was done at the beginning. If indeed some where done then those that represented our sector gave us in otherwise, we wouldn’t be here because there are more smarter ways to go about this,” Mr. Quaye added.
The FDA in its guidelines for the Advertisement of Foods published on February 1, 2016 stipulates that “No well-known personality or professional shall be used in alcoholic beverage advertising.”
The authority explained that the guideline was necessary to prevent minors from being addicted to alcohol due to the influence of celebrities.
The FDA further noted that the ban was in adherence with a policy by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and also part of efforts to protect children and young ones from being lured into alcoholism.
However, a citizen Mark Darlington filed a suit against the FDA’s directive praying the Apex court to hold as unconstitutional the directive as it violated the right against discrimination as guaranteed by Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution.
But the Supreme court in a 5-2 majority decision on Wednesday, June 19 dismissed the case and upheld the FDA’s directive.
The court held that the directive by FDA was not unreasonable and excessive, adding that it didn’t contravene the provision of the constitution.
