Media Silence On Humanitarian Crises
Conflicts in Africa and global shortcomings in
confronting the ravages of AIDS dominated a list published Thursday by Medecins
Sans Frontieres (MSF) of the most underreported humanitarian stories of
2005.
Waiting Room in Afghanistan
Conflicts in Africa and global shortcomings in confronting the ravages of AIDS dominated a list published Thursday by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) of the most underreported humanitarian stories of 2005.
“Media coverage can have a positive impact on relief efforts — just look at the nutritional crisis in Niger last year,” said Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of the international medical aid organisation.
“Although relief was far too late for many, the only reason aid efforts increased at all was the media attention at the peak of the crisis,” de Torrente said.
According to Andrew Tyndall, publisher of the online media-tracking journal The Tyndall Report, the 10 stories highlighted by MSF accounted for just eight minutes of the more than 240 hours of nightly newscasts on the three US television networks in 2005.
I have to lay some of this off to parochialism. The average American treats world news like world sports. If it ain’t happening in New York or L.A., it ain’t happening. The rest is just mediocre journalism.
I get grumpier than usual about this stuff because I lost my family doctor to MSF, several years ago. He’s still OK. In Afghanistan the last I heard. But, it’s taken quite a while to find a replacement as well-educated, thoughtful and competent.
Posted: Fri - January 13, 2006 at 02:14 PM