Panos London, Internews Network and the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) have launched a one year pilot phase of the Health Journalism Partnership, to build better health journalism in countries with the most acute public health crises.
In the past decade, global funding to address critical health issues such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and childhood diseases has grown considerably, a Panos announcement said. But public and private sector funding has primarily targeted medical and health interventions, neglecting media development. Everyday constraints and lack of resources and support have limited the capacity development of journalists in many developing countries.
The Health Journalism Partnership pilot phase is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the John S and James L Knight Foundation and the Open Society Institute. During the first year, a series of roundtables and dialogues will aim to galvanise interested donors to support development of partnership beyond this phase.
The Health Journalism Partnership (HJP) will raise the profile of, and advocate for, the critical role journalists play in communicating public health information to local audiences. It aims to raise awareness among donors of capacity development needs of journalists to report accurately and promote inclusive public debate on health issues, and will highlight gaps and trends in health journalism capacity building around the world. Health journalism in most developing countries faces a lack of resources for broadcast media, low status given to health coverage by media outlets, lack of training for journalists, and limited access to public information.
The HJP will document the resources available for developing better health journalism through capacity development and training programmes, support services and institutions. It will offer small grants, analyse the commitment of media managers to coverage of health issues, maximise donor effectiveness globally in nurturing better health journalism, and solicit funding from interested donors for a more concerted programme of support.
The HJP will build a comprehensive, global database of organisations that have provided support and assistance to professional journalists on health coverage. More in-depth research will be carried out in targeted countries, to identify unmet needs and develop case-studies of where health journalism has made a difference
A Small Grants Program within the HJP will provide grants of up to $10,000 for in-country journalist associations, media outlets, and media training organisations that demonstrate the need and ability to improve and promote coverage of key health issues. HJP's small grants will provide support for: local travel for story research and coverage; training programs for media professionals; equipment to support expanded health programming and/or training; support to partnerships between NGOs and journalists and networks at the country level; monitoring and evaluation of existing health journalism capacity development; and research on the impact of health journalism
The HJP will use strategic opportunities to involve donors and implementing public health organisations. The HJP will raise the profile of, and advocate for, the critical role journalists play in communicating public health information to local audiences.
