A new advocacy group, Factasia.org, has been created to promote smokers’ rights in Asia and defend suppliers against tobacco regulation that threatens their livelihoods, the organisation said. 

Factasia.org is independent and run on a non-profit basis, say founders Heneage Mitchell, a former managing editor of the region’s leading tobacco trade magazine, and John Boley, a journalist experienced in marketing and public relations. The organisation operates a website at www.fact-asia.org and is registered in Hong Kong.
Factasia.org plans to lobby on behalf of millions of Asia growers, distributors and retailers those livelihoods are at stake due to "bad legislation and excessive taxation", the group said. Priorities include publicising the relation of high excise taxes to increased illicit trade in tobacco products, and the rights of smokers facing smoking bans “that go far beyond what is reasonable for the protection of non-smokers.”