Tobacco Reporter’s publisher, Elise Rasmussen, received a “Voices of Freedom” award during the annual “Freedom Dinner,” organized by Forest, a U.K. smokers’ rights group on June 27.
Rasmussen, who is also president of the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum (GTNF), was recognized for her consideration of consumers.
“A great many conferences on tobacco are dominated by industry or public health campaigners,” said Simon Clark, director of Forest. “The consumer, smokers especially, are often overlooked. In a world where everyone, including the tobacco companies are quite rightly embracing harm reduction and products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco, it’s very easy to forget that there are still millions of people who enjoy smoking and don’t want to quit.
“The organizer of the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum doesn’t forget that. She is always willing to go that extra mile to accommodate a group such as Forest that defends the interest of adults who enjoy smoking. She bends over backward to find hotels and venues that have—not just smoking rooms but glorious smoking rooms.
Last year, for example, in Brussels, she did a deal with the hotel that resulted in an extraordinary baroque room on the ground floor being designated as the smoking room for the duration of the conference.
“We called it the Liberty Lounge and it’s just one of the many reasons I am delighted to present Elise Rasmussen—a great friend of the consumer with her very own Voices of Freedom award.”