You may think there are still smoking advertisements all over the place in Jakarta, but if you’ve really been paying attention, you should have noticed fewer and fewer smoking billboards around the capital over the last year.
That’s because Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama actually signed into law an ordinance banning all cigarette billboard advertisements in January 2015. However, the implementation of the billboard ban was slow, as the law allowed for those advertisements that still had permits to stay up until they had expired.
But progress was made and over the course of last year, more and more tobacco billboards were taken down. Back in November, a member of the Civil Service Police Officers (Satpol PP) estimated that all smoking billboard advertisement in the capital would be taken down by January of this year.
Well it took a little longer but it looks like Jakarta is finally being declared a smoking-billboard free zone.
The ones doing the declaring are Suara Tanpa Rokok (Voice Without Smoking), an anti-tobacco organization that has helped push the government to get rid of all tobacco ads. They have been counting down the days until all of the city’s smoking billboards should have been removed and they say today is the day.
If by chance you still see a cigarette billboard standing somewhere in Jakarta, it is almost certainly past its permit expiration date. Suara Tanpa Rokok recommends taking a photo of the offending advertisement and reporting it to them so they can contact the appropriate government officials to get it taken down.
Billboards are just the start. In January, Governor Ahok signed a bill banning all outdoor and indoor tobacco advertisements in Jakarta. We’re guessing that’ll take even longer to implement, but it’s still another big step in the right direction.
