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CTC's social report a fraud: anti-tobacco activists
The Ceylon Tobacco Company recently launched its social report saying it was accountable and transparent but anti-tobacco activists are scoffing at the claim.

"The social report of the CTC is not an isolated one. It is a well orchestrated move by the global tobacco industry," said Olcott Gunasekera, regional secretary of the IOGT's Regional Council for South and South East Asia.

"It is intended to hoodwink the population," argued Gallage Punyawardene, founder of the Swarnahansa Foundation, a local group that has been fighting against production and marketing of tobacco for decades.

CTC has been under pressure from the public over rising tobacco consumption. However a proposed law aimed at banning all forms of tobacco and alcohol advertising has been held up for nearly two years due to opposition from the CTC and is now unlikely to get off the ground, activists allege.

The social report is the first of its kind for a Sri Lankan company and also the first to be launched by CTC's parent BAT in any of the 190 countries that it operates in.

IOGT's Gunasekera said the whole exercise is aimed at influencing governments and the media ahead of proposed WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which should be in place by 2003.

"This is a comprehensive convention that is bring proposed to deal with tobacco consumption, marketing and smuggling. The social report is designed to convince governments and the public that tobacco companies are responsible citizens and don't sell to minors, for instance," he noted.

"As a responsible company it is imperative that we act responsibly," CTC says in its 84-page report. "CTC is prepared to face the implications of acting in such a responsible manner."

"Our view is that along with the pleasures of smoking come real risks of serious diseases. That smoking is risky has been widely known and publicized, and is an acceptable viewpoint for consumers and public health authorities. On this basis, we have long believed that the choice to smoke or not is a decision to be made by informed adults," noted Fred Combe, CTC Managing Director in the report.

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