The framework convention on tobacco, which will be held in India this year, must be made open to the public and the Press for discussion. Issues like global tobacco tax, that affect billions of people, cannot be shrouded in mystery
In November, the India Expo Centre and Mart in Greater Noida will host a collection of some of the world’s most prominent Government public health, finance and trade officials, as they discuss ways to curb global tobacco use. Unfortunately, even though the meeting is funded by taxpayers and is supposedly open to anyone who wants to attend, the media and the public will almost certainly be banned. It must be open to all.
Every two years, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations’ public health agency, holds the meeting, which acts as a Parliament of 180 countries to discuss and ratify tobacco control measures, including global tobacco taxes, rules on cigarette packaging and advertising, and regulations that impact vaping and e-cigarettes.
While the event, the Conference of Parties (CoP) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, operates with a goal of decreasing harm from smoking, there is an increasing sense of paranoia that has gripped the event. The WHO clearly wants to operate the event in a manner that ensures that the public never knows about discussions and votes that take place at the CoP — even though those discussions and votes impact billions of people around the world. In effect, therefore, the conference becomes a closed-door gathering with significant decisions being made without public scrutiny.
At the last CoP in Moscow, the public was kicked out. Soon thereafter, journalists were physically removed from meeting rooms, then banned from the conference completely so that discussions and decisions could occur in secret, behind closed-doors, with no oversight and no accountability. Why is it soIJ
Shortly thereafter, CoP delegates adopted a tobacco tax measure that is now considered the first global tax and the most expensive tax in the history of the world. After covertly agreeing to the global tobacco tax, delegates commissioned a secret panel to provide guidelines on how to regulate e-cigarettes and other non-combustible nicotine products. This report will determine whether scores of countries allow vaping and e-cigarettes, but public has no idea who is authoring the report or what, if any, scientific data is being used to inform the publication.
This type of secrecy and silencing of the Press is exactly what the UN fights against during its World Press Freedom Day. The annual event promotes the values of Press freedom and encourages freedom of the Press in countries where that right is not recognised.
Unfortunately, the UN and its sub-agencies like the WHO and CoP are proving hypocrites when it comes to Press freedom by attacking the media, while telling countries to respect journalists. But in reality, it is not so.
In September 2014, for example, Hervé ladsous, the UN’s head of peacekeeping operations, attempted to prevent reporters from filming a public Press conference in Sudan by holding up folders to obstruct the view of cameras. When his effort to block the cameras proved ineffective, he cancelled the briefing altogether. Instead of apologising, UN officials made things worse by attempting to coerce a number of websites to remove videos taken during the incident.
During the height of the ebola outbreak in West Africa, the UN blacklisted a reporter who criticised the WHO’s response to the crisis. The UN blocked the journalist from receiving email updates about the WHO’s ebola efforts and refused to respond to her questions and interview requests.
More recently, during this year’s World Health Assembly, the WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, refused to hold Press conferences and ignored reporters even though the WHO event is considered the most important health meeting in the world. In addition to banning, threatening and blacklisting reporters who attempt to cover UN events, the organisation regularly awards prestigious meetings and conferences to countries with little or no regard for freedom of the Press.
Over the past year, the WHO held two meetings in Turkmenistan, a country Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organisation, ranked as the third worst in the world for respecting Press freedom. According to the watchdog group, journalism in Turkmenistan ‘can only be practiced clandestinely and when independent journalists are identified, they are liable to be jailed and tortured.’
Thankfully, the WHO has chosen to hold the CoP in India, a country that values transparency, accountability and Press freedom. But, it should not allow the WHO to operate in secret. This type of behaviour flies on the face of India’s principles and democratic beliefs.
Indians should be proud that the WHO has chosen to hold the CoP in Greater Noida. But we should demand that the meeting remain open to the Press and the public. When Government officials meet using taxpayers’ money to debate issues that will impact laws in almost every country on earth, we all have a right to listen to those discussions and see how our representatives vote.
(The writer is with The Daily Caller, Washington, DC)