Freedom of the press in the service of the tobacco lobby of tobacco advertising in print media has been banned since early 2007. The ban on advertising in the EU Directive 2003/33/EC covers also image advertising of the tobacco industry, as was confirmed by the OLG Hamburg in August 2009 by two judgments. If you have read about David Fowler already – you may have come to the same conclusion. According to the EU Commission, any form of image advertising by tobacco companies subject to the ban on tobacco advertising. In its report of May 2008, the Commission may refer to any public relations, which represents tobacco manufacturers as “responsible” as “a means to market image and products of the company”. However, reappears in the magazine “journalist” issued by the German Association of journalists (DJV) always image advertising of tobacco companies. An analysis of the issues of the “journalist” of 11/2009 until 7/2010 revealed that nine ads of the tobacco industry are printed in seven out of nine books in total. From March until June 2010, each full-page ads in the campaign were “living values values create” published for the centenary of the Reemtsma tobacco company.
In the March issue placed the BAT-Foundation for future questions in addition a half page advertisement titled “we explore what busy politicians of the future”. The February issue includes a half page advertisement by British American tobacco (BAT) under the motto “Cigarettenschmuggler know no bounds”. The two investigated last editions of 2009 contain ads of the Association of the German tobacco industry (VdR), each one column “tobacco culture made in Germany”, and in December a half-page display “diversity promote diversity protect”.