TY - JOUR T1 - Worldwide news and comment JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 601 LP - 603 DO - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-056285 VL - 29 IS - 6 AU - Marita Hefler AU - John Baker Y1 - 2020/11/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/29/6/601.abstract N2 - All articles written by Marita Hefler and John Baker unless otherwise attributed. Ideas and items for News Analysis should be sent to tcnewsanalysis@gmail.com.In a recent message to parliament, the Swiss Government has rejected a popular initiative aimed at protecting children and youth against exposure to tobacco advertising, arguing that such protection would threaten the economic interests of the tobacco industry. In the message, the government restated its policy to only support tobacco advertising restrictions that are “acceptable to the tobacco industry”.The popular initiative is an instrument of direct democracy that allows citizens to propose changes to the Swiss constitution, provided 100 000 signatures were collected in their support. The initiative “Yes to the protection of children and youth against tobacco advertising” was launched by the major Swiss public health organizations, under the leadership of Hans Stöckli, who is currently the President of the Council of States (Switzerland’s Senate). The initiative aims at making two small changes to the Swiss federal constitution.The first change (italicised) includes additional wording to Article 41: “The Confederation and the cantons undertake, in addition to individual responsibility and private initiative, to ensure that […] children and young people are encouraged to become independent and socially responsible persons and are supported in their social, cultural and political integration and that their health is promoted.” The second change makes the following addition (shown in italics) to Article 118 Health protection: “Within the limits of its powers, the Confederation shall take measures to protect health. It shall legislate on: […] the control of communicable diseases, widespread diseases and particularly dangerous diseases of humans and animals; in particular, it shall prohibit all forms of advertising for tobacco products that reach children and young people.” The intent of the promoters of the initiative is that these minor … ER -