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Summary: Conflicts in Africa and global shortcomings in confronting the ravages of AIDS dominated a list published by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) of the most underreported humanitarian stories of 2005.
[NEW YORK, 12 January 2006] - Conflicts in Africa and global shortcomings in confronting the ravages of AIDS dominated a list published by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) of the most underreported humanitarian stories of 2005. The list highlighted the lack of media attention paid to the human cost of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), northern Uganda and the Ivory Coast and unrelenting crises in Somalia and southern Sudan. "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. In a year dominated by the war in Iraq and the Asian tsunami, only six minutes were devoted to conflicts in DR Congo and Chechnya. The remaining stories highlighted by MSF were not covered at all. "People all over the US tell us how much they want to show solidarity and do more to help others in crisis around the world. But how can they when a crisis is virtually invisible?" de Torrente said. Violence in the DRC, Haiti and Chechnya topped the list, which also included clashes in northeastern India and civil conflict in Colombia. While acknowledging the regular coverage accorded to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, MSF focused on the media silence when it came to the near-total lack of research and development into new tools adapted for the most-affected patients. One example cited by de Torrente was the absence of pediatric versions of easy-to-take antiretroviral drugs like those that exist for adults. "Without research and development into such medicines, hundreds of thousands of children will continue to die needlessly every year," he said.