Dr Manuja Perera the Editor of the CCT was invited as a guest speaker by the Directorate of Non Communicable Disease Control of the Ministry of Health and Mass Media for an advocacy meeting for media personnel and influencers on tobacco control. It was held on 19th December 2025 at Lavender Hall, BMICH, Colombo.

Dr. Manuja spoke on the theme “Tobacco Industry Interference: experiences from a FCTC article 5.3 mandated industry observatory in Sri Lanka.”

The workshop had an array of speakers highlighting the responsibility of media in controlling tobacco in Sri Lanka. The session highlight was the speech delivered by Dr. Diyanath Samarasinghe on “Ethical responsibility:refusing to normalize the use of tobacco”.

A panel discussion on way forward followed, which was moderated by Dr. Shalini Rajapaksha, with the participation of Dr. Diyanath Samarasinghe, Prof Hemantha Amarasinghe (representing NATA), Dr Manuja Perera, Mr Sampath de Seram (representing ADIC Sri Lanka), and Dr Shilanthi Senevirathne, Consultant Community Physician at the Directorate of the Non-communicable diseases.