Last 31 March-1 April, the second Media Officers Workshop was held in Malacca, Malaysia.  Twelve media officers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam participated in the two and half day workshop. Objectives were to facilitate strengthening local and regional media strategies to implement the WHO FCTC, focusing on supporting key initiatives (eg. SFE ASEAN, Tobacco Industry Surveillance). Media officers were also updated on new developments and outcomes during the COP 4, and were given an overview of what should be prioritized in terms of supporting the WHO-FCTC. The workshop also hoped to assess and review existing tools to communicate and share news and information regularly, between and among SEATCA and its partners in the region, and strengthen social media interventions in our advocacy work.

Media officers shared their media advocacy plans for the year, specifically on World No Tobacco Day, and had a full session to come up with a country and regional action plan to support implementation of the WHO-FCTC further.