Devex: At anti-tobacco conference, a race to beat industry tactics
“When they take their seats at the World Health Organization’s tobacco-control meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, this week, delegates [to the eighth session of the Conference of the Parties] should keep a keen eye out for unsavory tactics by the tobacco industry. … [A]t previous conferences, the meetings have been plagued by concerns of industry presence. The industry has been reported to exert different tactics to enter the conference venue using public badges … These repeated attempts by the industry have forced parties to the convention to close their sessions from the public, even barring the media from attending. They’ve done this in previous COPs, and had to enforce the same restriction this week. They’ve also decided to limit webcast sessions to the opening and potentially closing plenaries in this year’s meeting…” (Ravelo, 10/4).