• Alandmark Judgement against CTC
• World AIDS Day Programme
• Digital Stories Final Event 2008
• The Media Bussiness
• Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs

• 31 May No Tobacco Day 2008
• Raigam Award Ceremony
• SMS Competition
• E Library System
• Latest Youth trap of Tobacco
  

In the month of November 2008 there has been an article published in ‘The Nation’ news paper under the heading ‘Tobacco Faces Smoking Death Case’. This is a land mark case in relation to tobacco litigation in Sri Lanka, even the first ever case which is won by the plaintiff who filed a case against the Ceylon tobacco company.

As we are a happy about this development, one might wonder that why this article was published in ‘The Nation’ news paper only. Why not the other leading newspapers and television/radio channels?  Is it not a case where each media personnel should give great importance?  Other pointless and needless articles are publicized in the papers but why not this case? This leads to one doubting the hidden intentions of them not publishing such an effective and impactful article which has made a turning point in tobacco litigation history in Sri Lanka.

The following is the summery of the article which was published in The Nation newspaper on 02nd Nov 2008 by Stanley Samarasinghe under the title of 'Tobacco Faces Smoking Death Case’ (for the full article please click here)

The Court of Appeal in a landmark judgment delivered on Thursday held that a widow from Sevagama, Polonnaruwa had cause of action to claim compensation from Ceylon Tobacco Company Ltd. for the death of her husband who died of cancer due to smoking cigarettes.
The Bench comprised Justices L.K. Wimalachandra and Eric Basnayaka. The judgment, while dismissing the appeal of Ceylon Tobacco Company Ltd., affirmed the order of the Colombo District Court, given earlier in favour of the widow.

P. Lalitha Padmini Fernando’s husband Cecil Perera, who was a tailor by profession, prior to his death from lung cancer, filed a case against the Ceylon Tobacco Company. He claimed Rs.5 million contending that he contracted cancer as result of smoking . He died pending the hearing of the case and his widow thereupon filed a separate case claiming the Rs.5 million from the company in the District Court of Colombo.

She stated that Tobacco Company was aware of the harmful effects caused to smokers like her husband, but refrained from revealing such facts. The District Judge held that Lalitha had set out a cause of action. The action is based on patrimonial loss. Loss caused as a result of the death of her husband.

The Tobacco Company appeal to the Appeal Court against the District Court Order was dismissed with cost. Romesh De Silva PC with Harsha Amarasekera appeared for the Tobacco Company, Camishka Witharana appeared for Lalitha Fernando instructed by Medha N. Gamage, Attorney-at-Law.

References:
http://www.nation.lk
http://www.nation.lk/2008/11/02/news7.htm

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Annually, campaigns are carried out by ADIC on chosen themes to create nation wide awareness on prevention issues. These campaigns act towards enhancing the enthusiasm within the organization and other partners in the community.

The International AIDS Day was assigned on Dec 1st and since there is a link between the use of drugs and AIDS, we as a team carried out a leaflet campaign. Here we distributed two leaflets - One was on awareness on AIDS and the other was on, “How to protect from AIDS” and a condom was shown as a symbol. This was carried out in Negombo.

The campaign took place at the Negombo bus stand and in town areas from 10:30 a.m to 3:00 with a team of 37, which includes - Team Leader, 2 Coordinators, 5-Our reach workers, 21 Ex-Drug Users and 8 Regular Sex Partners.

We were able to reach 2000 people. We even got responses and inquiry on the situation – the connection of AIDS with Drugs, which in turn increased the awareness among the general public in a productive manner.

The project was a collaborative effort of UNODC and ADIC

The Digital Stories competition 2008 - the second Challenge - final Event has been end up recently with a colorful blast at Galle Face Hotel, Colombo at 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.The event captured the attention of well-known celebrity Artists of various fields including cricket and media. The event was a colourful and breathtaking entertainment inclusive of music accompanied by the awarding of certificates for the first 27 digital stories. The first prize was two weeks in Sweden for a short film training.

The competition is an attempt by the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC) to venture into a trend setting segment on Alcohol and Tobacco Use. The intention of having this competition was to get the youth in critically analyzing the hidden promotions and the hidden agendas of the tobacco and alcohol industries as expressed through the manipulative promotions in media.

“Digital Stories - Experience the Digitalization” is a collaborative project of ADIC, IOGT - NTO Movement and FORUT to stimulate the learning of prevention through new innovative techniques. Basing the competition exclusively on digital stories would help us to bring high quality education and entertainment to our key segment of the audience.

Last year the competition was promoted by "we challenge you!!!" and this year concept is"DISCOVER SWEDEN" which related with the 1st prize in order to promote it.

The distinguished panel of judges for the final event was Mr. Dileepa Abeysekara - leading Advertising Director, Dr. Waruni De Silva - Psychiatrist (Department of Medicine, University of Colombo), Ms. Rozanne Diasz - Leading Actress and a Model, Mr. Ferdy . Je - Singer, Mr. Pierre Andersson - IOGT-NTO Movement.

Winner – Thiwanka Sulakshana De Zoysa – (2 week trip to Sweden + gift pack)
Prize given by Deshabandu Olcott Gunasekara-Chairman,ADIC
2nd winner – Thamal Avinash Liyanage – (Sony video camcorder + gift pack)
Prize was given by Ms.Anarkali Akarsha (Leading Actress)
3rd winner – H.D.Suhada Jayamanne – (Mobile Phone + gift pack)
Prize was given by Mr.Danajaya Siriwardhan(Leading Actor)
4th winner – Primal Duminda Mediwaka (Pen drives and gift pack)
Prize was given by Mr.Gayan Perera (Leading singer)
5th winner – W.M.Sooraj Jayathilake (Pen drives and gift pack)
Ms.Himali Sayurangi (Leading actress cum announcer)

The event was lightned by the celibrities and contestants and we would like to thank all of them for the support and encouragement. And the event won't be a success without the sponsors support - RUPAVAHINI, EYE CHANNEL, NETHRA TV, ASURA FM, WEERAKESARI, METRO NEWS, DAILY NEWS, LANKADEEPA, PARIGANAKA and BIRINDHA.

Check our website for more informations and pictures >>>

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The Island newspaper has published an article on 26th August 2008 with the heading, ‘It’s official: beer is healthier than water’ which contravenes the Act, ‘National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Act, No. 27 of 2006’, and the article is liable under the Act.

Further the article elaborates findings of a Hydro Engineer Alex Goh in Malaysia and he states that “tap water is not only better than bottled water, but it’s healthier than filtered water, too. Yet beer is the best of all”. The content was controversial, because either it leads to a joke that insults beer or promotion of beer. But the Heading of the news paper was very promotive and has a big effect because the letters were in big letters highlighting; “its official: beer is healthier than water”

The recent article was an exact copy of an article which displayed in the web, which belongs to Mr. Nury Vittachi’s personal blog and the article was not in an edited format and it is not official at all.  (For reference: http://mrjam.typepad.com/diary/2008/08/scary-news-abou.html#comments)

The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Act, No. 27 of 2006 Section 35(1) states that, “A person shall not publish or cause to be published, or authorize the publication of, a tobacco advertisement or an alcohol advertisement.

Under section 35(4), “alcohol advertisement” means any distinctive writing, still or moving picture, sign, symbol or colours or other visual image or any audible message or any combination of the aforesaid that promotes or is intended to promote – the drinking of liquor, the purchase or use of an alcohol product or articles that include alcohol products, a brand name associated with an alcohol products, the name of the manufacturer of an alcohol products.

The Island News paper has been constantly violating the, ‘National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Act, No. 27 of 2006’ directly for the past few weeks. All the three articles were related to Beer promotions.

Beer a big loser by the ‘kick per buck’ measures says brewer,’ highlights an article by the Sunday Island published on 10th August 2008.

The article blames the policy as it holds the policy as responsible for hard alcohol to hold a 68% advantage over standard legal beer. This statement referred specifically to the Ceylon Brewery (CBL) desire for a forum to achieve a more conducive environment to promote their products through manipulating the public with dreadful facts and a platform for advertising, with an unscrupulous article and a picture depicting Carlsberg Beer logo, which is an opportunity - to promote their brand name and image in a manner through hoodwinking the public.

A lot of unjustified issues are being highlighted in this paper at the expense of the people. If this situation is allowed to persist, the public will ultimately be the ones to pay the price.

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"Beyond 2008", an initiative of the Committee in partnership with UNODC, has provided a unique and important platform for civil society to contribute to the review of the 1998-2008 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on illicit drugs. For this event, three personnels has represented Sri Lanka and our Senior programme officer of ADIC, Mr. Sampath De Seram was one of them.

The outcome of "Beyond 2008" has been a Declaration and three Resolutions adopted by consensus on 9 July, 2008 by all the participants of the Vienna Forum. These will be presented to the Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Drug Demand Reduction when it meets in September 2008 to prepare for the High Level Segment of the 52nd session of CND. the committee have created a series of proposals which command consensus across the rich diversity of philosophies and approaches within the NGO community.  They now have the responsibility to build on that consensus and ensure that governments and international agencies draw on the recommendations to create inclusive and effective drug policy, strategy and practice.

Download Declaration and Resolutions >>> (PDF File 193 KB)

More info log on to www.vngoc.org

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NO TOBACCO DAY 2008 - TOBACCO FREE YOUTH

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world. It is the only legal consumer product that kills one third to one half of those who use it as intended by its manufacturers, with its victims dying on average 15 years prematurely.

It is clearly proven that exposure to direct and indirect pro-tobacco advertising, together with other marketing strategies used by the tobacco industry, leads to an increase in experimentation by young people. The tobacco industry spends tens of billions of dollars worldwide every year to effectively market its products in as many ways as possible.
In response to this threat to young people, this year's World No Tobacco Day campaign focuses on the following main message:

One of the most effective ways countries can protect young people from experimenting and becoming regular tobacco users is to ban all forms of direct and indirect tobacco advertising, including promotion of tobacco products and sponsorship, by the tobacco industry, of any events or activities.

Like every year, ADIC contributes to The No Tobacco day, to make a change among the youth. This year our project focused more on the technological side as it is easy and effective to convey the theme ‘tobacco free youth’ to youth.

ADIC has created innovative and eye catching email video promotions which rotates among the email users around the world. We have designed a WEB PAGE specifically for this project. Apart from that, we have created (Translations of the English materials) Sinhala and Tamil materials such as Posters, Stickers, Banners, Leaflets (Leaflets are completely designed by ADIC).

Another method of promoting the theme is through our training programmes . Trainings cover different segments of Sri Lankan society. The education unit covers students, teachers, youth corps etc. community unit covers NGOs, CBOs, Samurdhi etc. plantation sector do trainings for managers, health staffs and workers.

Library unit has distributed information materials to the libraries and its visitors. Media unit has organized a special press conference, and participated for Radio and TV live discussions. Policy and campaign unit has also organized campaigns through the trainings. All these programmes are evaluated by the ADIC’s research and evaluation unit.

Web page of the NOTOBACCO DAY>>>

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‘SMS Kathandare’ is the latest programme that the ADIC has introduced for you to think about the reality behind the ‘glamorized idea of tobacco and alcohol’. Short Message Service (SMS) Competition was launched with the idea of using mobile SMS technology to make the mobile users as well as the non-users aware of the effective communication capacity that the latest technology has in ‘deglamorizing smoking’. The theme for the competition is ‘Significance of April 1st and the people who are ‘still’ smoking’ and send it to 2342 according to the following format ASC<Space><Your creative answer>.

The competition started by 01st of February and the entries been taken till 31st March and we recieved more than 4000 messages.

Final event of the competition concluded on 03rd of April 2008 at Galleface Hotel. The event was lightened with Dr. S. Puri World Health Organization(WHO), Dr. Sarath Amunugama (Director, Health ministry) H. A. P. Kahadaliyanage (Secretary, Ministry of Health Care & Nutrition) Dr. S. M. Samarage (Director General, Planning and Management Division) and other representatives of NGOs, INGO and private sector.
The perception of the project was to send our slogan, “Significance between April 1st and the people who still smoke,” among people with the use of mobile technology. The prizes of Lenovo mobile phones were presented each to the 03 best sms entries voted by participants at the event.

The best 3 SMS are….

(Selected for 1st place: Mr. Isuru Munasinghe)

Not every flower can represent love but Rose did it. Not every tree can stand thirst but cactus did it. Not every people can SMOKE but MOODAYA did it...

English meaning:
(Not every flower can represent love but Rose did it. Not every tree can stand thirst but cactus did it. Not every people can SMOKE but FOOL did it... )

(Selected for 2nd Place: Mr.U.J.B.Kulathunga)

April 1st yaluwanta LANU dila CHUN gannawa!Cigaratte company & ahala pahala aya samaHARAKTA powala CHUN wenawa!¤Mewa NOtherena aya A ayata CHUN denawa¤

English meaning:
(Feel good giving D-rope to friends on April 1st. Tobacco companies feel good by making some people smoke. Those who do not understand this, feel good supporting them.)

(Selected for 3rd Place: Mr.Ashoka Priyadarshana)

GAHATA POTHTHAT, POTHTHATA GAHATH ATHARA ATHI SAMBANDAYAKI,

English meaning:
(It is like the connection between the Tree Bark and the Tree)

Further the event was followed with enthusiastic entertainment with Classical guitar music by Nadeera and harindra which added more colors to the background scenario. The co - sponsor of the project was Brantel where as the DailyMirror, Verakesari, Metro Daily News and Birinda were Print Media Sponsors and Derana, Real Radio, Siyatha FM and Vettri FM were the Electronic Media Sponsors.

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The ‘e-library’ is the best source of disseminating information about the latest books published by ADIC and other resource persons on Alcohol and Drug consumption and its scientific information. Since ADIC is in partnership with National Science Foundation (NSF), the ADIC e-library users get the benefit of probing into latest data through the NSF e-library web link. If there is a search need the facility is provided to get information by inserting ‘author or the title of the book’.

The key benefit of the e-library is that the ability to retain information on the books available in ADIC library. Currently there are information summaries of ten books on the e-library.

As our second step of E library, we have published a video Arcade web page, which any one can access it through the web.

E LIBRARY SYSTEM >>>

Inspite of the Act on the ‘National Authority on Alcohol and Tobacco’ which came into effect on the 01st of December 2006, widely acclaimed by the Ministry of Health, has left a loose end on its implementation. The Tobacco Industry with its unethical manipulative techniques has been shrew enough to identify the pitfalls and loopholes to propagate their promotions.

Introduction of the Pall Mall cigarettes – the latest initiative of the Tobacco Industry The latest initiative of the Tobacco Companies has been the introduction of the new cigarette – Pall Mall. Here the main target of their promotions is to lure the youth into three categories using three vibrant colours to capture a different brand image. Promotions of ‘Pall Mall’ have been through the ‘Gold leaf’ cigarette brand, where they have used promotional strategies such as the name of ‘Pall Mall’ within the Goldleaf cigarette packs.

They have also advertised the brand name ‘Pall Mall’ in T-shirts which was sold at famous outlets. Even the shop keepers are encouraged to sell the Pall Mall cigarettes through incentives such as high profits and personal favours, such as bribing them with parties in five star hotels (giving free cigarettes and beer) and misleading through false information on the Act. They were also encouraged on the litigating procedures, where the tobacco company was able to use their own lawyers on cases pertaining to tobacco selling.

Products were demonstrated through elaborative glamorous presentations targeting young executives.

Report available with details>>>