Doctors Without Borders criticizes media coverage

The aid organization Doctors Without Borders sees a need to catch up in terms of media coverage. The consequences of crises and disasters often receive too little attention. Many humanitarian issues, such as the shocking conditions in Central Africa, Sri Lanka or Colombia, were barely covered by the media in 2006. To illustrate this, the organization has published a list of ten crises that were insufficiently covered last year. Although the list specifically reflects the situation in the US media landscape, it is comparable to that in this country, Herbert Ofner, Press Officer at Doctors Without Borders, told Pressetext.com. Of over 14,500 minutes of news coverage by the three major US news channels last year, only a meagre seven were devoted to the crises listed. The Austrian press, for example, is also very Europe-centered. Southeast Asia and Africa are hardly mentioned, says Ofner. However, it is important to raise awareness and call politicians into action, says Nicolas de Torrente, Managing Director of Doctors Without Borders in the USA. For example, the violent conditions in Haiti's capital Port au Prince were only covered for 30 seconds in the US media in 2006, even though the country is only 50 miles from the United States. In order to draw attention to these and other forgotten crises, the organization regularly sends out information and hopes that the issues in question will be addressed more frequently.