9 July 2007 - Pawel Walewski, health editor with Polands biggest selling weekly magazine Polityka, has been awarded the European School of Oncologys Best Cancer Reporter Award for 2007. The Award was established by the European School of Oncology (ESO) in 2006 to encourage better quality media coverage of cancer and recognise the many examples of outstanding cancer reporting by journalists across Europe.
The standard of this years entries was very high, with nominations received for journalists from Belgium, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Walewski, who will receive a prize of 10,000, said he felt honoured to be given this Award I have been writing about oncology and cancer survivors for ten years but every time I sit at my computer or reach for a pen I have a dilemma: how to reconcile competent information, based on facts and science. I am delighted the judging panel recognised it as the important issue.
Linda Geddes a correspondent with the New Scientist magazine and Maria Valerio Sainz who writes for the online version of Spanish newspaper El Mundo were joint runners up and will receive a prize of 5,000 each. When told that she had received a Best Cancer Reporter Award Geddes said that It is good to know that this kind of investigative health reporting is still valued and rewarded. I hope I have helped to raise awareness of the desperation some cancer patients feel, and the need for their doctors to listen to them and help them make the right decisions for their health.
Sainz flagged the important role that journalists play in educating the public about cancer and said I think that journalists have an important social responsibility, even more so when talking about health and illnessI feel that we should show the human courage of all those who live and survive a tumour that's why I try to use a simple language, a human tone, far from unrealistic expectations and
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Contact: Corinne Hall
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European School of Oncology
9-Jul-2007