Swine Flu/Iraqi Journalists Who Work With U.S. Media Face Hurdles in /Access to Information is a Fundamental Human Right,

JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS
Intense Coverage of Virus Caused Unneeded Panic, Media Analysts Say
Almost overnight, the H1N1 virus, the scientific name for swine flu adopted by the World Health Organization, seized the attention of the media throughout the world and gained importance in the blogosphere and in social networks like Facebook and on Twitter.
However, some experts and observers believe the intense coverage of the illness has raised the public's anxiety level, Reuters reports, quoting blog publisher Arianna Huffington, among others.
"There's a distinction between obviously keeping our readers and viewers up to date and sensationalizing the story. The media tends to love doomsday scenarios like bird flu, Y2K (year-2000 computer scare) and the guy flying around with TB (tuberculosis)," Huffington says, according to Reuters.
In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez criticized private media's reporting on the flu, calling it "irresponsible." Brazilian newspaper columnist Vinicius Torres Freire said the media had exaggerated the coverage. "Dengue fever, malaria, and dysentery kill thousands of people," he said. "But now a single media virus is sending crowds to the pharmacies," he said in his column (subscription required).
Hamilton Nolan, a blogger for Gawker agrees, noting that many more Mexicans have been killed in drug-related violence than by the H1N1 virus. "This is a page B-3 story that's gone all A-1."
A pack of reporters has descended on the Mexican village of La Gloria, in Veracruz state, at the home of a five-year-old boy who is said to be the first person to have contracted the current virus. He is healthy but under scrutiny by the international press.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) has urged media to be fair and truthful and to refrain from portraying Mexican immigrants as scapegoats for the outbreak.
What do you think about the media's coverage of the virus?
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Access to Information is a Fundamental Human Right, Participants of Hemispheric Conference Affirm
Journalists, government workers, and representatives of non-governmental organizations from 18 countries in the Americas, met in Lima, Peru, April 28-30, and developed a “Regional Action Plan to Advance the Right to Access Information.”
The plan will be released within a couple of weeks, as part of the conclusions of the Americas Regional Conference on the Right of Access to Information conducted in Lima by the Carter Center, in collaboration with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, the Organization of American States, and the Andean Commission of Jurists.
The 115 participants, from 18 countries in the hemisphere, reaffirmed at the end of the conference that the “access to information is a fundamental human right related not only to the fight against corruption and the improvement of development, but also to health, education, quality of life, and other essential rights.”
Elaborated by thematic working groups at the beginning part of the conference, the document was discussed in a plenary session coordinated by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who passed through Lima during a tour to personally ask the presidents of South America to promote the right to information access.
Access to information can change the environment of entire societies, Carter said. He emphasized the need to further promote the right to access, which is currently defended in the Americas only by a few members of civil society, an elite.
The plan of action that was approved specifically emphasizes the importance of participation by the media and by investigative journalists.
Editors, media owners, and journalists must promote the use of the transparency mechanisms for investigative journalism to increase the skills of journalists, the draft plan says.
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A Medical Reporter's Dos and Don'ts for Covering Swine Flu
As swine flu cases spread across Canada, journalist Maureen Taylor, former national medical reporter for CBC (now on leave), offers several "dos" and "don'ts" for coverage, including these:
DO:
*Hold goverment officials accountable for information they should have.
*Learn more about the influenza virus.
*Learn also about vaccines and anti-viral drugs.
*Know when to scale back coverage.
DON'T:
*Press health officials to predict what's going to happen.
*Report rumors from anyone, even health-care staff or patients in hospitals.
*Let editors and producers persuade you to twist the story.
*Wear a face mask if you're reporting in Canada or the U.S., unless you are in a room with a swine-flu-positive patient.
In a separate post, Larry Cornies, editor of J-Source Tools for Reporters, asked Canadian journalists for their assessment of the coverage so far.
Here are some of the responses:
*Andre Picard of the Globe and Mail said journalists need to be sure they understand basic science, so they don't sensationalize epidemics.
*Tom Blackwell of the National Post said the media needs to find out more about the outbreak in Mexico, because many more Mexicans are ill and the swine flu there has been more serious than everywhere else in the world. He says journalists should stress that many more Mexicans may have been infected than what has been reported, but they haven't had contact with the health-care system.
*David McKie of CBC News said journalists need to do investigative reporting and go after stories about accountability. Journalists need to ask questions about the nation's preparedness, while still getting people the information they immediately need.

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Iraqi Journalists Who Work With U.S. Media Face Hurdles in Seeking Refuge in States
An Iraqi woman who translates for a major U.S. newspaper has had to move five times since she began that work. She can't tell her family or friends about her job because militias in Iraq consider those who work with Americans as traitors. In addition, she and many other Iraqi journalists face difficulties in seeking refuge in the U.S., the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports.
The same Iraqi woman applied for refuge in the U.S. 10 months ago and received notice that she needed to send more documents last month. It will take another 10 months to hear a decision from the Department of Homeland Security. She has no idea whether she will be eligible to come to the U.S. and she must wait in Iraq, fearing discovery by the militias everyday.
This is the situation for many Iraqi journalists and even civilians who work with U.S. media. Under the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, individuals and their families with U.S. media ties should be able to quickly evacuate, but the program is working far too slow to be considered a "rescue" program, writes Elisabeth Witchel in the CPJ blog.
Iraq has been considered the deadliest place for journalists for the past six years, according to CPJ. In 2008, 41 journalists were killed in direct connection with their work. There are another 22 deaths of journalists in the country that CPJ is investigating to determine if they were related to the journalists' work.
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