The tobacco industry went on a propaganda blitz last week by conducting a three-day briefing seminar for journalists, at a luxury resort in the Northern Province. The ostensible objective was to "improve the understanding that the media has of the issues facing the tobacco industry." The real objective is to wine and dine journalists and then feed them with biased information to write pro-industry stories.

 

The strategy behind such industry “briefings” is spelt out in a recently released British American Tobacco Company (BAT) memo. The 1993 memo written by Dr Sharon Boyce, BAT’s Head of Smoking Issues in the UK. outlines preparations for the first such “media seminar” in South Africa in that same year. It reveals that the industry’s “independent experts” did not come cheaply; they were to be paid US$50 000 for a five day visit to South Africa. The venue had to be “somewhere pleasant (e.g. a beach resort)” because this "motivates the journalists to attend”. The memo also cautions that “some care should be taken in selection of journalists.” Journalists unsympathetic to the industry were not to be invited.

 

Last week’s seminar was the third such briefing that BAT has organised in Africa. The first was in 1993 in SA, the second in Mauritius in 1996. They have run similar briefings in other developing countries in Latin America and the Far East.

 

At the media seminars the industry usually puts forward a false, benign public face - as a responsible industry which manufactures a legal product.

 

However, what it hides from journalists is its real, malignant private face - as an irresponsible industry which sells a lethal product.