Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson submitted a bill in parliament yesterday evening on amendments to the law on alcohol with the purpose of making the ban on advertising alcoholic beverages clearer and more efficient.

Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

It is suggested that the supervision of the ban be moved from the police to the Consumer Agency and that administrative fines can be issued in the case of violations, ruv.is reports.

As reported on Rás 2 yesterday, the bill includes a ban on advertising light alcoholic beer if the bottles or cans are so similar to regular beer that they can easily be confused.

Critics say the bill is clearly intended to close the gaps in the current advertising ban, which could have serious consequences for local producers of alcoholic beverages.

They reason it would be more sensible to permit the advertising of alcohol under strict conditions instead of banning it altogether.

Meanwhile, nine MPs, led by Progressive Party MP Siv Fridleifsdóttir, have suggested in a bill that the general sale of tobacco be banned and the visibility of smoking in Iceland be limited, dv.is reports.

This includes limiting smoking in movies and plays by preventing state funding for such productions.

The idea has been harshly criticized by actors and directors; Baltasar Kormákur told Fréttabladid that this is the first step towards using state funding for censorship.