Staff Correspondent: BanglaNews Senior Correspondent S.M. Shariful Islam Sumon has received the ‘Pragya Tobacco Control Journalism Award-2019’ for his significant contribution in creating awareness on smoking and tobacco control through the preparation of reports. Besides, two other journalists also received this award. They are Daily Prothom Alo journalist Suhada Afrin and Time Television’s Mamun Abdullah.
Pragya (Knowledge for Progress) and Anti Tobacco Media Alliance (Atma) jointly organized the Tobacco Control Journalism Awards at Sirdap Auditorium in the capital on Wednesday (October 23).
Minister of Information Dr. Hasan Mahmud handed over this year’s award to journalists.
A total of 14 reports were selected for scrutiny. A jury board of ten members, including the former vice-chancellor (VC) of Dhaka University AMS Arefin Siddique, selected three of them as the best reporters.
Shariful Islam, Senior Correspondent of BanglaNews working in Rajshahi region, said that receiving or reward after work increases the sense of responsibility towards that work. The fight against tobacco companies is proven. I will continue to fight for this. Moreover, he thanked the jury board for giving the award. He said, I got the award without being a central journalist of Dhaka. It proves that the work is really great no matter where it comes from.
Professor Dr. Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) President Member of Parliament Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Thailand Thammasat University Head of Global Research and Advocacy Dr. Mary Asunta, Former President of Bangladesh Federal Journalists Union (BFJU) Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Bangladesh Country Coordinator of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), Global Health Advocacy Incubator Muhammad Ruhul Quddus, Journalist Mortuza Haider Liton, National Cancer Research Institute and Cancer Hospital Epidemiology department chief associate professor Dr. Md. Habibullah Talukdar Raskin and others.
Earlier in the event, research results on the implementation of Article 5.3 of the International Tobacco Control Treaty Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) under the control of tobacco companies by the World Health Organization (WHO) were published.
It is reported that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has set a long-term goal of making Bangladesh tobacco-free before 2040. Although three years have passed in the meantime, due to the slow progress in tobacco control, there is a fear that it will be difficult to achieve this target in the stipulated time. In this situation, a study on the implementation of FCTC Article 5.3 has been recently completed by Pragya to help achieve a tobacco-free Bangladesh. which was officially released today.
HS/RA