Nick Davies, speaks out on media cutbacks

A report in the UK's MediaGuardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/26/nuj-day-of-action-newspaper-job-cuts, highlights Nick Davies views on current media cutbacks. Davies will speak at the WCSJ2009 (Tuesday 30th June, 3:30pm).

The Guardian piece reports Davies as saying it is a big lie that cutting staff and editorial resources is possible without damaging the quality of news produced. Davies was speaking at an National Union of Journalists (NUJ) summit that resulted in the NUJ calling for a day of action over recent newspaper job cuts.

Programmers for the WCSJ are currently in discussion with former CNN science journalists, to see how their experience of falling under the ax might contribute to the London Conference.

EurekAlert! lifts ban on The Sun

Breaking news....EurekAlert! has reinstated the Sun newspaper's access to embargoed material. According to Paul Sutherland, the journalist behind the 'Life on Mars' story at the centre of this controversy, EurekAlert! now accept that no embargoes were broken in writing the Sun's front page story.

Embargoes a Hot Issue for WCSJ2009 - report in UK Press Gazette

Embargoes have become a hot topic of discussion amongst UK science journalists, in response to a 'life on mars' front page story in the UK's Sun newspaper. Today the UK Press Gazette reports on the whole issue http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42903&c=1

Did the life on mars story break an embargo on material issued through online science news service EurekAlert!? Or was this a case of good old fashioned journalism? The upshot has been a 6 month ban for the Sun newspaper on embargoed material from EurekAlert! and a debate that continues to rage on the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) e-mail list. Latest posts on the ABSW e-mail list suggest that EurekAlert! banned The Sun even though they had no evidence that the story was based on their embargoed material.

At the ABSW AGM (Tuesday 21 Jan 2009) the controversy resulted in the establishment of a working group on embargoes that will report to the WCSJ2009 in London. Ahead of the current furor the WCSJ2009 had already identified embargoes as a 'hot topic'. The session, Embargoes: Friend or Foe? includes Geoff Watts (Broadcaster), David Whitehouse (Author and Broadcaster) and Richard Horton (Editor, The Lancet) with further speakers and panelists to be confirmed.

Fiona Fox, Chair of WCSJ2009 Programme Committee Creates Buzz at Programme Launch Party, London

Fiona Fox, Director of the UK’s Science Media Centre and Chair of the Programme Committee, WCSJ2009, creates a buzz at the programme launch party this week in London:

“If the Science Media Centre were to close down tomorrow the most important lesson I would have learned in my six years in science media relations is that science specialist reporters are our greatest ally. Quite simply when science reporters cover science stories, the stories are better.

I do believe that science is a special case and needs specialist reporting. And I do believe that bad science reporting costs lives.

It's because I think science reporters are a special case that I think we need a special conference for science journalism. Those of you who know me will know I'm a conference sceptic and tend to think that too many people sit in conferences discussing science communication rather than actually doing it, but that scepticism went out the window when I attended the World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, 2007. Being in the company of 600 science journalists from 50 countries was an amazing experience. I knew this conference was different when I slipped into the first session late to hear contributions from the floor from the editor of Scientific American, the editor of Nature, the science editor of the Toronto Star and head of science at the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

As Chair of the Programme Committee for WCSJ2009 I was in despair a year ago because we were sitting looking at a blank page where the programme should be. Now I'm in despair for a different reason, because we have such a wonderful programme that the big dilemma is which sessions I can actually go to and tragically which ones I'll have to miss.

On day one there is Jia Hepeng's session on REPORTING SCIENCE IN COUNTRIES WITH RESTRAINTS which clashes with Ehsan Masood's session on REPORTING OF CREATIONISM, which in turn clashes with my session with Nick Davies, the author of Flat Earth News and creator of the term CHURNALISM.

Then on Wednesday there is the choice between TIM RADFORD IN CONVERSATION WITH BOB MAY, or Martin Moore's session on WHETHER SCIENCE JOURNALISM AND SCIENCE PR HAVE BECOME TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT and I can't go to either because I'm speaking at a session with my fellow Directors of Science Media Centres in New Zealand, Australia and Canada on HOW SCIENCE IN THE MEDIA LOOKS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.

I am really proud of the programme. Pallab Ghosh, President of the World Federation of Science Journalists, has been on our case the whole time to make it edgy and provocative, and he is not disappointed. Put it like this there are likely to be lots of rows and debates that will spill out into the coffee breaks and parties. This conference will generate a very real debate about very real topical controversies in science journalism.

Now all we need is the audience, so please tell everyone, let’s create even more of a buzz, WCSJ2009 is the place to be for everyone who cares about science journalism!”