Date:     05/08/2009
Venue:  Press Club, Raitong Hall, Shillong

A media advocacy workshop was held by the Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya (VHAM) in collaboration with Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) in Shillong at the Press Club, Raitong Hall.

There were at least 16 journalists from both the print and electronic media who attended the workshop.

The resource persons for the workshop were S.P.Mahanta, Additional Advocate General of Meghalaya, Dr. J.Syiemlieh, Meghalaya Nodal Officer for Tobacco Ms.Pala Control State Health Education Officer and Akhauri Pradyuman Sinha, from VHAI, New Delhi.

The key highlights of the programme were:

• Additional Advocate General, Meghalaya, S.P. Mahanta informed the media on Section 4, 5, 6 of COTPA 2003, and also briefed them about the Meghalaya Prohibition of Smoking Act 1998.

• Questions were asked related to definition of public places, prohibition of sale to minors etc. which were explained by all the resource persons.

• A P Sinha informed the media about the pictorial warnings, their importance, and also about surrogate advertisements.

• He also spoke on the court case filed by HFM Trust on the issue of implementation of pictorial health warnings of packages of tobacco products.

• He informed the media persons on the undertaking given by the Central Government to make it compulsory for all tobacco products to display pictorial health warnings on 40 % of 1 side of packages of tobacco products from 31 May.

• A P Sinha stressed on the importance of the role of the media towards making Shillong smoke free. He informed them about the importance of reporting violations, publishing success stories and also articles related to tobacco control.

• Dr. J.Syiemlieh informed the media on the efforts of the government towards tobacco control. She also informed them that the Challan Books are in the process of being published and that it would be completed by 2nd or 3rd week of August. These challan books will be distributed to all the concerned departments.

• She also informed that an account has been opened by the Meghalaya Government for depositing the fines collected.

• Most of the journalists both from the print and electronic media who were present,   committed towards making tobacco control an integral part of their dailies and also supported making Shillong smoke free.

• The journalists said they would cover, in a big manner; the first fines imposed in the state and also follow up on the initiatives of the Government and NGOs towards tobacco control.

• They opined for more surveys to be conducted in Meghalaya to determine the effects of tobacco on the health and socio-economic life of the people.
  

• Various questions regarding surrogate advertisements, pictorial warning, smoke free laws and definition of public places were answered by A P Sinha.
  
  
• Mahanta, Syiemlieh, Sinha were interviewed by the print and electronic media at the end of the programme.