Top 10 Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2006
comes from Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medicins Sans Frontieres, one of the best humanitarian organizations around, and winners of the as well.
of the article:
New York — The staggering human toll taken by tuberculosis and malnutrition as well as the devastation caused by wars in the Central African Republic (CAR), Sri Lanka, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are among the , according to the year-end list released today by the international humanitarian medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The ninth annual list also highlights the lack of media attention paid to the plight of people affected by the consequences of conflict in Haiti, Somalia, Colombia, Chechnya, and central India.
“Many conflicts worldwide are profoundly affecting millions of people, yet they are almost completely invisible,” said MSF Executive Director Nicolas de Torrenté. “Haiti, for example, is just 500 miles from the United States and the plight of the population enduring relentless violence in its volatile capital Port-au-Prince received only half a minute of network coverage in an entire year.”
According to Andrew Tyndall, publisher of the online media-tracking journal , the 10 countries and contexts highlighted by MSF accounted for just 7.2 minutes of the 14,512 minutes on the three major U.S. television networks’ nightly newscasts for 2006. Treating malnutrition, tuberculosis, and Chechnya were mentioned, but only briefly in other stories. Five of the countries highlighted by MSF were never mentioned at all.
These issues were given all of 7 minutes of airtime - how noble of the mainstream media, which prefers spending its time say, .
In no particular order, here is the top ten. You can read the entire report by the way, but the links below correspond to the specific sections of the report. You can read the whole thing, or just what interests you.
Somalia -
Central African Republic -
Tuberculosis -
Chechnya -
Sri Lanka -
Malnutrition -
Democratic Republic of Congo -
Colombia -
Haiti -
Central India -
January 12, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Great post. Thanks for bringing attention to this as Doctors without Borders is quite an amazing organization. It is quite sad that humanitarian crises are not being reported frequently or well enough to draw public attention to them.
January 15, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Here’s another one:
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January 15, 2007 at 5:18 pm
[…] by Greg on January 15th, 2007 Hat tip to Truly Equal, reporting on the ten most underreported humanitarian stories of 2006. These issues were given all […]
January 15, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Thanks for the link of the Iraqi children. You know, I actually had read somewhere about it but could not find a source for it, so thank you for sharing the link and bringing it to my attention.
January 15, 2007 at 7:33 pm
[…] See more on this story on the Truly Equal blog. […]
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