Whatever happened to the word ‘independent’?

Click here for a response from WHO   PDF

‘Philip Morris pledges $1bn to stub out tobacco smoking’, Financial Times, Sept 13, 2017.
Andrew Jack   https://www.ft.com/content/d9acceae-97d5-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b

Derek Yach –  ex WHO, ex Senior Vice President,  Global Health and Agriculture Policy at PepsiCo  – ex-Rockefeller – is President-Designate of a new Philip Morris Foundation, Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. The Foundation’s website illustrates how the word ‘independent’ has become almost meaningless.  Beginning in 2018, the Foundation will receive approximately US$80 million annually over the next 12 years from Philip Morris International (PMI). Despite this  the Foundation claims that PMI and the tobacco industry will have no influence over how it spends its funds or focuses its activities. It also claims that  independence and transparency are its core principles, that it has an independent research agenda, independent governance, ownership of its data, freedom to publish, and protection against conflict of interest.   Can someone explain this to me?

For an excellent critique of this Foundation by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control  CLICK HERE http://www.who.int/fctc/mediacentre/statement/secretariat-statement-launch-foundation-for-a-smoke-free-world/en/