Thinking inside the tank
Free-market thinktanks around the world provide a powerful voice of support to cigarette manufacturers in battles against tougher regulations, according to a story in The Guardian that appears under the byline of Jessica Glenza in New York.
The Guardian is said to have examined one of the largest networks of independent free-market thinktanks in the world, organized by Atlas Network, a not-for-profit based near Washington DC in Arlington, Virginia, which it says “connects a global network of more than 475 independent, civil society organizations in over 90 countries to the ideas needed to advance freedom”.
At least 106 thinktanks in two dozen countries were said to have accepted donations from tobacco companies, argued against tobacco control policies called for by the World Health Organization (WHO), or both.
The groups examined by the Guardian are said to have, variously, opposed standardized cigarette packaging, written to regulators in support of new tobacco products, or promoted industry-funded research.
Patricio Marquez, lead specialist on health global practice at the World Bank, said such activity could impact public health efforts. The thinktanks “have created an arsenal of evidence in order to influence policy-making and decision-making”, he said.
In responses to questions from the Guardian, the thinktanks said they were fiercely independent, unswayed by any donations, and they argued pro-business, low regulation and taxation positions as part of a broader free-market philosophy.
Not all the groups in the network that the Guardian analyzed were active in tobacco policy, and some were said to have done so only in isolated instances. Some thinktanks issued policy papers around climate change skepticism, private education, pharmaceutical patent protections, energy deregulation and other conservative causes.
Philip Morris International was said to have told the Guardian ‘ideas are not for sale’, and the story said this was a sentiment echoed by other tobacco companies. ‘We have worked, and will continue to work, with carefully selected organizations around the world who share our desire to promote policies that produce meaningful public health improvements,’ PMI reportedly said. ‘It is absolutely ridiculous to imply that supporting an organization would result in a group taking action they otherwise would fundamentally oppose.’
Meanwhile, Marquez was quoted as saying, in part, that freedom of speech needed to be respected as long as everything was transparent. “In that way, everybody is aware who you are representing,” he said.
The content of the story is based on an investigation by the UK-based Guardian newspaper.
‘This content is funded by support provided, in part, by Vital Strategies with funding by Bloomberg Philanthropies,’ according to a note accompanying the story. ‘Content is editorially independent and its purpose is to shine a light on both the tobacco industry and the world’s most vulnerable populations, who disproportionately bear the brunt of the global health crisis resulting from tobacco consumption,’ the note says, in part.