The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Hatab Fadera
13 November 2008
Kemo Cham, the acting editor-in-chief of the Daily Observer, the biggest newspaper in The Gambia, yesterday left Banjul for Johannesburg in South Africa.
He is expected to attend a week-long conference which will be attended by participants from the 160 countries that are party to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The event will start from the 17th to the 22nd of November 2008 in Durban. It will will also accord the Daily Observer's acting editor-in-chief the opportunity to also participate in a day's training workshop on reporting tobacco control in Africa. He will be one of 15 African journalists to undergo the training.
Mr Cham, whose trip was funded and facilitated by the Framework Convention Alliance, will take part in all the sessions of the conference, including daily technical briefings on issues involved, as well as special media conferences.
Speaking shortly before his departure, Mr Cham told this reporter that some 800 government delegates and more than 100 observers from non-governmental organisations will attend the conference, which is the third of its kind.
Prominent issues that will dominate the agenda of the conference, according to him, will include charting a way forward on international protocol to tackle the massive illegal trade in tobacco products, and adopting global guidelines on protecting national public health policies from the influence of the tobacco industry.
According to him, the event will be seen as an opportunity for the participating journalists to familiarise themselves with the evidence that tobacco use constitutes a massive public health threat - and an unnecessary and preventable burden on already stretched resources.
He added that it will also motivate them to encourage debate about what good - or ethical - journalistic practice means when it comes to the subject of the tobacco industry.
Mr Cham added that the Framework Convention Alliance is an umbrella body for over 35 NGOs advocating for tobacco control in many parts of the world.
The Daily Observer's editorial head also had some words of commendation for the management under Mrs Neneh Macdouall Gaye for giving him the chance to attend such an important international conference.
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