Environment and Health

The Indian Foreign Ministry has declined to allow foreign journalists to participate in an environmental journalism course focusing on coastal management scheduled to be held in the southern Tamil Nadu city of Tuticorin ongoing until Nov. 6.

By Darryl D'Monte

Journalists are cynical by nature, and it is perhaps understandable that some in India continue to retain a certain degree of scepticism about climate change – over whether it is truly taking place, being exaggerated or, worse still, whether it is little more than a conspiracy concocted by a handful of vested interests for unclear purposes.

Positive +, a free bilingual newspaper brought out on a laptop from Asma Naseer’s living room is India’s first newspaper on HIV/AIDS. The paper’s commitment to building up a friendship with the reader and its innovative design have made it popular in and around Chennai where it already faces a demand for more copies than the 5000 it can afford to print, reports Papri Sri Raman of Inforchange Media.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, May 1(AMF) - While the international media have been gone quite 'feverish' in their coverage of human swine flu, the media in this region appears to have remained relatively calm.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, Apr 6 (AMF) - As the first round of climate change talks get under way in Bonn, Germany, Asia’s media are taking stock of how environment issues have taken hold not only of the public, but also on the Fourth Estate itself.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, Nov 28 (Asia Media Forum) - A ‘weak’ science culture, commercial pressures in the broadcast industry, a lack of TV educational programming for youngsters, as well as boring formats, combine to make it difficult for science journalism to gain a foothold in countries like Thailand.

By Nalaka Gunawardene

COLOMBO, Nov 7 — On a recent visit to Tokyo, I watched Climate in Crisis, an excellent documentary co-produced in 2006 by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK  along with The Science Channel and ALTOMEDIA/France 5.

The film draws heavily on the Earth Simulator — one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers — which scientists use to project our planet's climate. It can anticipate climatic patterns in the atmosphere and the oceans over the next 100 years.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, Oct 30 (Asia Media Forum) — As environmental issues become more 'trendy', environmental journalists are hard pressed to be more creative in selling green stories to the public.

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit*

BAN NAM KHEM, Thailand — Travel down the Andaman Coast and you can't miss them — the 20-metre-tall steel towers with sirens on top, the evacuation directions signs, even standalone weather bureau offices, all built in the past three years as the country's first-ever tsunami warning network.

There's just one problem, no one's clear on who's supposed to push the alarm button.

African migrants in the UK are among the most vulnerable to HIV infection, accounting for the greatest number of new diagnoses in recent years. Being HIV positive can intensify experiences of stigma and marginalisation, apparent in inadequate living conditions, limited employment opportunities, and lack of visibility in policy decisions.