FHI - November 30, 1998

Family Health International Wins Media Award -- November 30, 1998

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC -- Family Health International's quarterly bulletin, Network, has been named "best population journal" in the 1998 Global Media Awards for Excellence in Population Reporting. Sponsored by the Washington-based Population Institute, the awards are scheduled to be presented November 30 in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Family Health International, a non-profit research and technical assistance organization that specializes in reproductive health, distributes the free bulletin to 70,000 developing country readers in 200 countries. The publication focuses on recent trends and research involving a range of reproductive health issues, with an emphasis on family planning.

During the past year, one of Network's theme issues explored men's reproductive health concerns. For example, scientific surveys from several regions of the world showed that men are more interested in family planning than most people think, contradicting popular views that most men know little about contraception, do not want their partners to use it, and are not interested in planning their families. Other theme issues were on female and male sterilization, and the many facets involved in the allocation of scarce resources in family planning programs.

Other 1998 winners include the Ugandan weekly radio program "Choices," which features information on family planning; Asia Pacific Population & Policy, published by the East-West Center Program on Population in Hawaii; and The Washington Post as "best major daily newspaper" and the newspaper's Judy Mann as "best columnist."

Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting Systems won for its "People Count" documentaries; The San Francisco Chronicle won for best editorial support; Eleanor Mill of Mill News Art Syndicate in Hartford, CT, USA, received the best editorial cartoonist award; and Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje of The Houston Chronicle in Houston, TX, USA, won for articles on high-yield farming.

Newsweek, a U.S.-based magazine, won for articles on population overcrowding that threatens Amazon rain forests. ReachOut Foundation of the Philippines was honored for creating better public awareness of reproductive health issues through posters, brochures and other media. Also recognized were the Futures Group's Personal Choice advertising campaign in Kingston, Jamaica, which promotes contraceptive services; and Inter Press Service (IPS), an international news service, for its daily journal Terra Viva, produced at the United Nations in New York.

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Family Health International Wins Media Award -- November 30, 1998