Over 50 Journalists and editors from the print, electronic, and online genres from major news organization in Sub Saharan Africa joined the growing anti-smoking efforts in Africa as they were updated their skills in effective reporting of children and tobacco addiction and related issues.

The virtual workshop which was Organised by Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), Vital Voices for Africa (VVA), and Being Africa, aimed to build the media practitioners capacity with the appropriate and effective approach to reporting children and tobacco addiction.

The web discussion was part of programs line out by the organizers to mark the 2024 World No Tobacco Day (WNTD).

Mr Philip Jakpor , Executive Director of RDI, Mr Caleb Ayong, Executive Director of VVA and Achieng Otieno Founder of Being Africa, took the participating Journalists through series of topics including tobacco control and public health reporting capacity, the growing menace of tobacco industry activities targeting children as replacement smokers, among others.

In his opening remarks, the Executive Director of RDI, Philip Jakpor explained that the World No Tobacco Day is commemorated May 31 annually and that the theme for 2024 sought to galvanise governments to implement policies that would help to prevent the tobacco industry from enticing children to the smoking chain.

According to him, research findings revealed that about one third of youth involved in tobacco as a result of tobacco industry advertisements, promotion, marketing and sponsorship focusing on young persons.

Mr Philip Jakpor , Executive Director of RDI
Philip Jakpor , Executive Director of RDI

The Executive Director of VVA,  Caleb Ayong stressed that the tobacco industry in Africa are targeting young people and luring them with juicy and flavour items, in so doing promoting children tobacco addiction.

He underscored the need for Journalists and advocates to remain firm and united against this destructive marketing, emphasizing the overall objective to protect and prevent our children from the clutches of tobacco, educate them and continue to advocate for policies that prioritize their wellbeing.

Some other resource persons include tobacco control advocates, veteran journalists, and development experts also took turns to brief the participating Journalists on the WNTD 2024, on the theme: “Protecting children from tobacco industry interference.”

Caleb Ayong, VVA Executive Director

 

The WNTD 2024 theme emphasizes the need for governments across the globe to address tobacco industry tactics that target children.

This year’s commemoration of WNTD is also been used to amplify the voices of young people who are calling on governments to protect them from being targets of the tobacco and nicotine industry for a lifetime of profits, creating a new wave of addiction.

Currently, children are using e-cigarettes at rates higher than adults in all regions, and globally, an estimated 37 million youth aged 13–15 years use tobacco.

Despite a decline to 1.25 billion users, tobacco use continues to increase especially among 13 to 15-year-olds who are exposed daily to new products such as e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, snus, pouches, and digital where these products are marketed to bypass traditional advertising restrictions1.

To maintain its grip on young people, the tobacco industry opposes anti-tobacco legislation, designs products that specifically target children, implements strategic marketing campaigns, and works to shape policy environments.

Tobacco farm and shed; photo credit to google

The organizers explained that some of these issues are either under-reported in the media or reported from uninformed perspectives, hence the need to hone journalists on the effective reporting on children and tobacco addition.

Building the capacities of Journalists on how to effectively play their society watchdog role as encapsulated in the WHO MPOWER package, the organizer added, would help to expose them to strategies that the industry uses to entice and addict children as well as reporting skills that can galvanise policymakers to action.

Source: expressnewsghana.com

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