Raghida Haddad, executive editor of Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia magazine and mentor with the WFSJ peer-to-peer program, was among the winners of the Earth Journalism Award.

Cuban authorities prohibited the arrival to the Island of a group of journalists who have been selected to participate in a training workshop to cover the Global Forum for Health that will be held from 16-20 of November.

“Scientists can bypass people like me and the media to reach the public directly.” Philip Campbell, editor-in-chief, Nature

WFSJ is resurrecting its bulletin. New format. New content. This October edition mainly presents the decisions made by the General Assembly held in London, last July. It also provides an update on the respective responsibilities of the members of the Board. You will also find the list of the members of the two committees that support the Board: the Programme Committee and the Finance Committee.

On the campus of the University of Ottawa in Canada’s capital, about 25 science students recently crowded into a seminar room bringing news releases they had written about their research. They were met by longtime science reporters from the Toronto Star and the Ottawa Citizen, and four senior, general assignment journalists – reporters who often cover science willy-nilly. 

I wondered what I was going to do with the stack of business cards I gathered from the World Conference of Science Journalists in London. Then a friend of mine, Coturnix from A Blog Around the Clock gave me the idea of interviewing partcipants. So kicking starting off, what I hope will be a series of posts, is Deborah Blum, a fellow WFSJ blog member, and one heck of a writer.

The British Council in collaboration with World Federation of Science Journalists are happy to announce the winners of the competition that will bring science journalists in Alexandria, Egypt, to cover the Darwin Conference (14-16 November 2009).

Time to take a deep breath – this is going to be hard. As a journalist, I’m about to do the unthinkable and praise a rival newspaper.

The newly established South African Science Journalists’ Association (SASJA), created in December 2008, has joined the World Federation of Science Journalists.

This is a story about money, and how to help freelancers when they are ignored, cheated or stalled when it’s payday. The National Association of Science Writers in the United States has a “grievance committee,” that has successfully taken up their cause. Here’s how it works.

In his essay ‘Science journalism: Too close for comfort’ (Nature, 25 June 2009) the American science reporter Boyce Rensberger analyzes the history of science journalism and distinguishes three ages: the ‘Gee-Whiz Age’, the ‘Watchdog Age’ and the ‘Digital Age’. About the first two there can be little disagreement. However, to call the third age – our present time – the ‘Digital Age’, tells only something about the technology used to convey science journalism, but nothing about its character. I would call our age the ‘Entertainment Age’.

We wanted to give science journalists from around the world the opportunity to talk to one another about important topics and issues. These podcasts give science journalists--new and experienced--the opportunity to ask their peers questions about the profession, no matter what country or time zone they live in. - Hannah Hoag

Scientists often blame science journalists for being superficial and being sensationalists. But how do science journalists themselves look at their jobs, and at science journalism in general? Is it true that the main thing they want is to score with their stories? Or do they prefer balanced, in-depth reporting, that can arguably be more boring for the general public? And what’s the judgement of science information officers, who’s job it is to try and make sure information about their university or institution reaches the media as much as possible?

Journalism and New Media students at Leiden University and Fontys School of Journalism in Tilburg, both in the Netherlands, scrutinised media reports last year, functioning as fact checkers. Their supervisors Alexander Pleijter, Peter Burger and Theo Dersjant wrote a contribution for the recently published anthology 'Journalism brought into discredit' produced by the Catholic Institute for Mass Media (KIM, University of Nijmegen) in which they described what the students had discovered. The part of that chapter that looks at causes and offers suggestions is reproduced below.

CAPE TOWN: Bill McKibben looked tired. Tired, but intense. The 350.org organiser-activist sat opposite me at the table of a curb-side café, punch drunk from crossing time zones. South Africa today, Israel tonight, who-knows-where tomorrow. His stare fixed on the brick paving somewhere to my left as our conversation lumbered slowly to a start.

18 SEPTEMBER: DEADLINE TO AWARD FOR DARWIN CONFERENCE IN ALEXANDRIA The British Council, in collaboration with the World Federation of Science Journalists, is offering travel awards to journalists who would like to attend a 3-day conference on Darwinism at the famous Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt), 14-16 November 2009.

“I read your article and I didn’t quite understand what ‘star density’ means”, a good friend of mine, Sasha, told me last week. She’s a very intelligent girl, we studied together at the Moscow State Linguistic University. But linguistic education in no way provides you with scientific insight, and, unfortunately, in most cases neither does secondary school in Russia.

Philadelphia Magazine recently named Jim MacMillan Philly's best "Nuevo Journalist". In other circles he is known as Philly's best unemployed journalist. MacMillan, a veteran of the Philadelphia Daily News and a Pulitzer Prize winning AP photographer, has recently finished a model that he hesitatingly calls “entrepreneurial journalism".

Early in July Ashfaq Yusufzai looked down at his new “shiny and beautiful” Gold Medal from Pakistan’s Ministry of Health and UNICEF then spoke to about 100 medical and science reporters in a high-end Islamabad hotel conference room.