27/01/2008

Feverish journalism

By Mário Magalhães
ombudsman@uol.com.br

If children begin to give heed to vaccination against Yellow Fever, which is a sign that fear of the disease --and vaccination against it-- is disseminated.

It's not for nothing: at the beginning of the year, an impressive amount of journalism suggested that the disease threatened the country. Folha was among them. As you see to the side, from Jan. 8 through last Wednesday, the topic was on the front page 14 times over 17 days.

Public interest is the same in knowing there was contamination in rural areas. Death resulting from mosquito bites in the forest is as tragic as someone infected in the cities.

It just so happens that since 1942 there is no known case of transmission of Yellow Fever in an urban area in Brazil. That information was provided, but the predominant tone, shown in headlines on the front page, was that it was escalating.

Under a headline, the newspaper gave the opinion of the health minister: "On the day in which the number of notifications of suspected cases of Yellow Fever in the country rose from 15 to 24... José Gomes Temporão went on TV to make the statement... to say that there is no risk of an epidemic."

It is not the job of journalism to flatter authorities, but not their role to alarm either. When it consults people who understand, Folha did a good job.

On the other hand, after laymen proclaimed the urgency for universal immunization, infectologists criticized it.

Through Thursday, they counted 10 Yellow Fever deaths in the countryside, since Dec. 30. All of those contracted it in rural Goiás state.

Folha's exaggeration in 2008 contrasts with another in 2001, when 22 deaths were concentrated in the first quarter. Not once that year did the front page have a reference to the illness.

In March, an eight-line footnote said: "Yellow's fever's 15th victim dies." Another item announced weeks earlier that 39 had died the year before (another one summed up the statistics).

The items did not carry the opinion of the health minister at that time, José Serra. In 2000, there was not one headline on the front page about the malady.

The newsroom disagrees: "The numbers in recent years justify Folha's coverage of Yellow Fever. In 2004 and 2005, there were three confirmed deaths in each year; in 2006, there were two deaths; in 2007, five.

"In 2008, in only the first month of the year, there have already been 10 confirmed deaths (one of them occurred Dec. 30, but was only confirmed now). Additionally, Folha gave ample space to authorities and experts, with different views about the dimensions of the problem. And the only headline about the topic dealt with the pronouncement by the health minister in which he sought to tranquilize the population."

I don't understand why the numbers in 2000 and 2001 didn't "justify" highlighting. On that matter, my questions did not merit an answer.

Balkan confusion

(Paises e capitais no mapa en ingles: Bulgaria, Sofia; Romania, Bucharest; Yugoslavia, Belgrade; Macedonia, Skopje; Greece; Turkey; Adriatic Sea)

CORRECTION JAN. 21, 2008 (world news section Jan. 19, page A14): The sea that appears on the map which illustrates the text: "Sofia accord reinforces Russian domination in the European market" is the Aegean Sea, not the Adriatic Sea.

CORRECTION JAN. 22, 2008 (world news section Jan. 19, page A16): Different from what was shown on the map that illustrated the text "Sofia accord reinforces Russian domination in European market," Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and not Yugoslavia, a former Baltic state which disintegrated after ethnic conflicts in the 1990s.

CORRECTION JAN. 23, 2008 (opinion section, Jan. 21, page A3): An item published in this section made a mistake in defining the former state of Yugoslavia as a Baltic state instead of Balkan. The Baltic states are Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

A smaller map than the cover on a matchbox in recent days caused a reader to label it utter sloppiness.

On the Saturday before last, Folha published the headline "Sofia accord reinforces Russian domination over European market," about a deal, signed in the Bulgarian capital, to construct a natural gas pipeline.

To the side was the little map, a precious editorial resource to locate the countries mentioned. It was full of mistakes.

In the second correction it said: the Adriatic Sea in the drawing is in reality the Aegean. I complained: Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, was mistakenly described and appeared as the capital of the extinct country Yugoslavia. A new correction on Tuesday referred to the former Yugoslavia as a "Baltic state."

Two readers wrote and on Wednesday the final correction came out: Yugoslavia was a Balkan state, not Baltic.

The lesson is to check important information beforehand. Even more so when it comes to corrections.

Translation by John Wright