Framing of the smoking ban in the Netherlands

This research examines how the media ( 351 news articles) and the political arena ( 201 political interventions) framed the smoking ban policy in the Netherlands from July 2008 till June 2010. The hospitality industry has undergone a lot of transitions since the implementation of the smoking ban policy in July 2008. A lot of bars, restaurants and other public venues weren’t smoke-free and therefore a lot of time and money was invested in creating smoke-free zones. But as our analysis shows, for one category- small bars- it was a battlefield to survive the negative effects of the smoking ban. This was partly due to lack of financial resources and space in order to create designated rooms for smoking. And this led to a lot of contested views about whether or not the policy has fulfilled its purposes- creating a free smoking-room in public places to protect the employees and the clients. Because, if we look back at our analysis for the policy ( chapter 4) it is clearly stated that this policy has been enacted because the government wants to protect the employees and clients from the harmful effects of secondhand smoking and thus want to gain more health-profit in the Netherlands. From this starting point, we analyzed the policy frames in the media and parliamentary arena by using a content and frame analysis.