Strong medicine
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21186269 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shereen El Feki (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Issue | 05 |
| Publication date | 2008-05-10 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Arab Media and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1687-7721 • E-ISSN: 1687-7721 |
| Publisher | The Adham Center for Television and Digital Communication (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.70090/sef09stm |
| OpenAlex | W4402989945 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
What’s the difference between nine and 50 percent? Two months in prison or $5,000 if you’re a journalist in Sudan. In August 2007, Al Hayat Wa Al Nas, a Sudanese newspaper, published an article on homosexuality in Khartoum high schools. The paper alleged that half of the students engaged in same-sex activity became infected with HIV, citing a local AIDS organization as its source. The piece caused an uproar, not least in Sudan’s Ministry of Education, which formally objected; and so, the editor, journalist and NGO representative found themselves in court. The alleged source denied any involvement, while the newspaper’s chief executive argued the publication was only acting in the public interest, and that the evidence supporting its claim was locked away in a secret report. Sudan’s Press Tribunal was unimpressed; both the editor and NGO worker were fined 10,000 Sudanese pounds ($5,000). The former refused to pay and ended up in a Khartoum prison. This episode is an extreme example of some of the everyday problems in reporting on health and science in the Arab region. Journalists often have little knowledge of medical and scientific issues, and a poor grasp of basic tools, among them statistics. Without doubt, Sudan has a serious AIDS problem. According to UNAIDS, 1.6% of the population is infected with HIV, and a recent study of homosexual men in Khartoum puts their infection rate at more than nine percent. But this is still a far cry from the 50% cited in the Sudanese article; while such rates are conceivable in small, closed networks of people at risk of HIV, an experienced health journalist would have thought twice about publishing such numbers without a substantial paper trail
Traditional medicine · Health and Medical Research Impacts · Medicine
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2024 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |