Ethical reporting of health issues in Africa

PRESS RELEASE

Academics and journalists from various African countries will come together in Grahamstown this week to discuss ethical issues in health journalism. They will be joined by an internationally renowned media ethics scholar, Professor Clifford G. Christians, from the University of Illinois and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and fellow of the Kettering Foundation, David Holwerk.

The symposium, hosted by The Discovery Centre for Health Journalism and The Research Unit for Media in the Global South at The Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies (JMS), will run from 16 – 18 June 2011 with the title 'Ethical reporting of health issues in Africa: exploring civic awareness with journalism practitioners and educators'.

The symposium is supported by Discovery, Idasa and the Open Society Foundations.

The symposium will bring together African journalism educators and practitioners to discuss ethical reporting on health issues in Africa, with a focus on public health. Through this, the symposium is hoping to contribute to the formation of a greater pan-African network, which will work towards improving health journalism education, training and practice on the continent.

Professor Herman Wasserman, Deputy Head of The Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies, said, "For journalism to have credibility and earn citizens' trust, it has to take ethics seriously. The field of health journalism raises complex questions about journalists' responsibility towards the subjects they report on and to society at large. With this symposium we are bringing together journalism practitioners and academics to discuss journalism ethics and civic engagement from their various perspectives. We look forward to a stimulating and robust debate."

Topics to be discussed and debated include:

• An ethics of care in the service of health journalism.

• Weighing the consequences, balancing values: health journalism's multiple audiences and responsibilities.

• (Mis)understanding science – the media's role in facilitating the public 'understanding' of health and medical science.

• Stigma, blaming and shame: are journalists helping, healing or harming?

• In whose name?: experts, empowered citizens, indigenous knowledge and agency.

• People, publics and the duty of utmost care: interviewing patients, finding sources and facilitating the voice of ordinary people in health journalism.

• Shaping new curricula for health journalism education.

• Independence, accountability, credibility, completeness and fairness – towards a 'Hippocratic Oath' for health journalists?

"Health journalism is arguably more ethically complex than other types of journalism and, as we’ve recently launched the Discovery Centre for Health Journalism at JMS, we want to to tease out some of the issues that health journalists in the field are grappling with," said Professor Harry Dugmore, Director of the Discovery Centre for Health Journalism. "This will help us develop the curriculum for our new honours course in health journalism and will hopefully also be useful for other journalism schools in Africa."

For more information about the symposium visit: http://healthreporting.ru.ac.za

Information about the hosts

• The Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies, has for 41 years been a leading provider of journalism and media studies education in South Africa and the African continent.

• The Discovery Centre for Health Journalism was launched in January 2011 as part of the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies. It aims to promote excellence in health journalism through postgraduate journalism education, professional short courses and research.

• The Research Unit for Media in the Global South is a unit within The Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies. This unit is committed to the development of global media studies as a particular sphere of research and scholarship. Its aim is to stimulate, consolidate and guide research in South African media studies, serve as an African node for international collaborations and contribute to the setting of an international research agenda that will focus on the comparable conditions under which media are produced and consumed outside of the currently dominating northern metropoles.

• Idasa is an independent public interest organisation, committed to building sustainable democratic societies in collaboration with African and global partners.

• The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve this mission, the Foundations seek to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights.

For more information contact:

Professor Herman Wasserman, Deputy Head: School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University,
E: h.wasserman@ru.ac.za
T: (046) 6037141

Professor Harry Dugmore, Director of the Discovery Centre for Health Journalism,
E: h.dugmore@ru.ac.za
T: (046) 6037136