WFSJ's News

“I’m really interesting in writing about science and I was wondering how you got into it and whether you had any tips?”
At some point in our careers, all science writers receive an email like this and most of us probably sent one when we started out.

The Cape Town Book Fair – the largest on the African continent – had science journalism in the spotlight during its fifth season July 30-August 2. The gathering featured South African and other African reporters who have taken on the fraudsters and scam artists preying on the hopes of uneducated people across the continent with phony medicine and science.

Member associations of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) have approved a constitutional change that will allow the upcoming WFSJ board elections to be held electronically.

Two thirds, 20 out of 30 member associations with voting rights voted yes to changing a clause in the constitution that required board elections to happen when the General Assembly met every two years. The clause also required candidates to be present at the General Assembly. The change, effective immediately, will allow candidates from around the world to run for the WFSJ board through an open electronic process.

The 2011 edition of the World Conference of Science Journalists will take place at the edge of significant new developments in undersea archeology. One optional workshop will take participants from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Cairo to the port of Alexandria. There, they will watch how robotic submarines and other technology help archeologists find ancient shipwrecks and investigate their cargoes.

The Seventh World Conference of Science Journalists in Cairo, June 27-29, 2011, is less than a year away. Organizers have already lined up workshops to take reporters deeper into their assignments, seminars to help frame the reporting of science globally, and help in storytelling with the multimedia tools that are increasingly available from anyone’s laptop.

A graduate student in science journalism from Technische Universität Dortmund in Germany was at the European Science Open Forum in Barcelona a couple of years ago. She met a countryman, Jan Lublinski, and they talked.

The Executive Board of the World Federation of Science Journalists has asked its member associations to allow a change to its voting system. If approved the change would enable any member of affiliated associations to apply to be considered as a candidate for the Board.

Gervais Mbarga teaches communications and journalism at Université de Moncton in Canada and recently found himself heading up a team of “mentors.” These experienced science journalists will help general-assignment journalists in Africa, and the Middle East become better able to report on science.

Following the Board meeting in Turino, the WFSJ mid-term Report is now available

Pouria Nazemi is an amateur astronomer in Tehran, and he’s been at it for 16 years. He’s also science editor for Jam-e-Jam, Tehran’s largest newspaper, and he’s agreed to translate the World Federation of Science Journalism’s online reporting course from English into Farsi, the language of Iran.

The 7th World Conference of Science Journalists that will be organized in Cairo, Egypt in 2011 is organizing a reception in partnership with the Research, Development and Innovation Programme – Egypt – during ESOF on July 6 at Il Circolo dei Lettori. Come mingle with the conference organizers and learn about the conference program and Egyptian science. More importantly, come for good food and drink and don't miss receiving a crystal pyramid made in Egypt!

Rosalia Omungo was reflecting on the Canadian Association of Science Writers 2010 conference during its closing hours on a June evening in Ottawa, Canada.

Take one of the most persistent mathematical mysteries in the world, one that underlies secrecy in everything from national spy agencies to shopping on the Internet, and figure out how to make sense of it visually for television.

The Turkish-language version of the WFSJ online journalism course has landed on our website, and a former radio news director in Turkey thinks it’s not a moment too soon.

Only if they attend ABSW’s July conference - Science reporters worldwide grapple with the complexities of molecular biology – the DNA watershed and all that has followed since. But reporters and editors in the U.K. will have an opportunity in July to get up close and personal with the knowledge available from genomics, the new “consumer” service that has emerged from DNA sequencing

‘In rude health’ but ‘under threat’. This is the state of science journalism in Britain, according to the January 2010 report ‘Science and the Media: Securing the Future’.

Canadian science journalists, key donors, and some 40 friends and collaborators, celebrated, on Monday 12th April 2012, the opening of the new offices of the World Federation of Science Journalists, in Gatineau, a city situated in Québec, right beside Ottawa, the capital City of Canada.

At the beginning of March 2010, Nature launched its third dedicated portal: Nature Middle East. The two previous portals are Nature China, launched in 2007, and Nature India launched in 2008.

The World Federation of Science Journalists is extremely proud to present the international team of mentors that will lead the second phase of its flagship project, SjCOOP.

Do you want to be a part of the toughest and most demanding (and rewarding) science journalism training program ever?

By Nicolás Luco, El Mercurio  -  Like never before, after an earthquake, top editors fall upon science journalists to try to explain the disaster. We rush to our seismology connections. We raise questions in Facebook to see if new ideas come in. Mail our international contacts studying Chile's crust: mainly in France.

(WFSJ) – On Saturday 20th February 2010, in San Diego (California), Ms. Nadia El-Awady, President of the World Federation of Science Journalists, officially launched SjCOOP, a $4.3 million (Canadian) mentoring project aimed at raising journalists that can efficiently cover health, environment, agriculture, science and technology in Africa and the Middle East.

Launched in 2008 by the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) and the Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net), the Online Course in Science Journalism -- the first one in the world -- was translated into Portuguese in 2009

Science journalists often have much difficulty getting African scientists accept to be interviewed. Ruth Wanjala, reports from Nairobi (Kenya) how science cafés might be part of the solution and create good opportunities for science journalists.