AKOS NAGY
Business: Journalists interested in economics, not science

	MOTIVATOR: Akos Nagy, Director of the Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers. Photo: HADLEY KINCADE

NAGY: Strangely, having information about diseases does not motivate people into doing something. A survey connected to osteoporosis, which is a very big problem in Hungary, asked people who have the disease: “Have you ever heard of osteoporosis?” Ninety-six percent answered that they know of this disease.

Half knew the risk factors. Only 30 percent spoke about it with their doctor. About 11 percent went to have a screening. It seems hard to motivate them, not just give them the information, but to make them do something for themselves.

Often when companies try to push information through the media, they are rebuffed: “O.K you can buy advertising, you can pay for publications, but we don’t care about this kind of information” is the usual answer. We need to break through these walls. We need help from the other side, too.

The regulatory environment is very strict both in Hungary and Europe on healthcare communication. One year ago the EU refused to pass rules that would have eased restrictions on communications about diabetes and other major diseases. Mass media’s economic dependence and the strict rules are the two reasons why we are now working in a communications twilight zone. In the long term, this will kill the interest of news organisations in new business products and we’ll communicate to the public only via advertorials and ads. Maybe these forms of communication are exactly why people know about the diseases, but they are not motivated at all to do anything.

It is also characteristic of Hungary that scientific themes are not topics in the general media. Journalists simply do not care what happens in research or what the most important scientific themes are. Journalists are interested only in the economic side and nothing else.

CORRADO CLINI
Government: Bias for the extreme distorts truth

	REASONED APPROACH: Corrado Clini, chairman of the board, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe and director general of the Global Environment and Sustainable Development departments, Ministry for the Environment and Territory, Italy. Photo: HADLEY KINCADE

green HORIZON is a very successful example of how to correctly and accurately communicate on environmental issues. But in general, mass media seldom address environment and health issues without creating an alarm or a sense of emergency. I think this is the wrong approach, because if communication related to the environment should necessarily be linked with a state of emergency, the right information needed to successfully manage environment and health problems would never make it through.

Let’s take as an example a typical, relevant, economic and political cross-sectoral issue like 'energy.' If we look at environment and energy we can see good results in the explication of the positive role of environmental protection in addressing energy security and economic growth. Addressing environment and health protection from the point of view of energy could have interesting results in communications because we could show how, in concrete terms, protecting the environment could drive energy security and economic growth.

GMOs are another example. I think the press and TV in the EU have addressed GMOs in incorrect terms. On many occasions the information was extreme. Some say that GMOs affect the environment and the health of the population, and so they are dangerous. But some say that GMOs are useful for the environment. Maybe a correct representation of the issue would require a figure about the effective costs in positive and negative terms of the introduction of GMOs — calculating both the effects on agriculture and productivity, as well as the environmental damage.

Concerning GMOs, I think that we need to take a critical look at the situation in Europe and in the new EU countries. First of all, we have science — five or six important scientific institutions working on this issue in Europe. They are offering different cases for understanding the issue.

We do not have a European scientific institution or agency able to prepare, elaborate and communicate information to consumers and governments. And this is a dramatic gap, because in Europe we are now in a passive or defensive situation because of this gap. The media is playing a difficult but not positive role, because they refer to different points of view in a relationship with different actors.

The discussion on environment and health in CEE’s media was held at the launch of green HORIZON at the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Budapest. The organisers were the REC, the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development and the Reuters Foundation. Lending help were the World Health Communication Associates, the Italian Trust Fund and the World Health Organization — European Office. Opinions from NGOs and scientists will be printed in the magazine’s next issue.