(Vancouver – 18 February 2012) – Vesa Niinikangas, President of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) announced today the winners of 8 travel awards to discover science in Norway and attend the 2012 Kavli Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, 3^rd to 6^th September.

The World Federation of Science Journalists joined its two Canadian member associations in asking the Canadian Government to stop making it impossible for science journalists to interview in a timely fashion scientists working for the Canadian Government.

Saturday 18 February 2012
4:00 p.m. – Winners of travel grants to the Kavli Prize Ceremony in Oslo
News Briefing Room, Room 223-224, Vancouver Convention Centre
Sunday 19 February 2012
4:00 p.m. – World Conference of Science Journalists, Helsinki, June 2013
Reporters' Coffee Lounge area outside the Technology Workroom (Room 301), Vancouver Convention Centre

Japanese science journalists Mariko Takahashi, senior staff writer at the prestigious newspaper The Asahi Shimbun and former Board member of the World Federation of Science Journalists, has had to correct the flawed physics of former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Lower House member Tomoyuki Taira, both from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.

The association of science writers in Italy has launched an online survey entitled “Know thyself, science writer” asking science journalists from all over the world to help define the situation of science journalism. According to its publisher, Fabio Turone, president of Science Writers in Italy (SWIM), the purpose of the survey is “to collect information about a profession lacking clear borders.”

WFSJ will announce the 7 winners of trips to Norway during the AAAS meeting, in Vancouver
Join Vesa Niinikangas, President of the World Federation of Science Journalists, and Nils Christian Stenseth, the President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Saturday 18 February 2012 at 4:30 p.m. for a Wine-and-Cheese Reception in the Reporters' Coffee Lounge area outside the Technology Workroom (Room 301) in the Vancouver Convention Centre.

At the beginning of the year, on 25 February 2011, Violet Otindo, a reporter and producer at Kenyan television (channel K24), revealed a shortage of free condoms in northern Kenya. Her story triggered a huge media echo, a news conference by the Health Minister, national and international media attention, an intense public debate, all the way to a debate in Parliament. Violet Otindo is a mentee in the SjCOOP project and the external evaluators monitoring the impact of mentees’ stories have documented how a Kenyan journalist can make a difference.

If you regularly do a Twitter search for the words "science journalism," like I do, you'll be amazed, amused and sometimes shocked by the amount of bashing science journalism takes in the Twittersphere. It shows that not all science journalism is created equal, and it's a sign of the times, really: Not all journalists who write…Read this post >>