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Sleuthing Big Tobacco's Global Trail: Action of the Month There are literally millions of internal industry documents now online. These documents contain a wealth of information on the tobacco industry's international activities, yet they have not been systematically searched country by country. Often the groups who could best interpret and use the information are unable to access it due to slow and/or expensive internet connections. That's where global partnerships come in! Below you'll find out how to make this activity a collaborative effort and to put the information you dig up to good use. BASIC GUIDELINES FOR SEARCHING TOBACCO INDUSTRY DOCUMENTS If you have never searched tobacco industry documents before, we recommend that you read through the 11th World Conference fact sheet "Searching Tobacco Industry Documents: Basic Information, Steps and Hints." Alternatively you can download a pdf version at http://tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/worldconference.shtml WORKING WITH YOUR PARTNER TO SEARCH DOCUMENTS* We recommend that the partner with the fastest internet connection initiate the document search in order to reduce the time, effort, and cost involved. To start off, use your or your partner's country as a keyword**. If nothing turns up, or if you would like to expand the search, choose a regional term, e.g. "West Africa". If there are too many documents, you will need to narrow your search. You and your partner can decide together what types of documents and topics would be of greatest interest. For example, if you are interested in counter advertising, you might want to look up marketing reports for the country or region. Your partner may also have suggestions for country-specific tobacco industry names and organizations to search under. * Before you start your own search, you might want to check and see if any documents have already been located for your country (see #4). ** For fun, U.S. groups may want to look up documents related to their state and to compare local industry tactics with those in their partner's country or region. INTERPRETING THE DOCUMENTS Once you've found some interesting documents, share them with your partner -- by mail, fax, or email (list weblinks). Your partner may have special insight into the names, places, organizations, and events mentioned. For example, at a regional workshop in Thailand, a representative of ASH-UK shared a document detailing BAT's smuggling practices in Vietnam. Vietnamese attendees were quickly able to identify the people mentioned in the document as well as the locations of the smuggling routes. If the documents are in a language that you are not fluent in, your partner can translate them. The interpretation of the documents may lead to additional searches using names and terms that arise frequently. PUTTING THE DOCUMENTS TO GOOD USE! International information gleaned from the documents has already served a vital role in discrediting the tobacco industry around the world. For example, check out the following resources online: Trust Us, We're the Tobacco Industry Illegal Pathways to Illegal Profits: The Big Cigarette Companies and
International Smuggling Documents on smuggling Here are some suggestions for follow up activities partnerships might undertake:
At very least, share the documents you and your partner find with Essential Action so that they can be posted on the Global Partnerships website and distributed to relevant listservs! Further ideas? Questions? Contact: Essential
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