Stan Represented a Crisis in Communications for Western Media

Hurricanes Katrina and Stan struck within weeks of each other last year, and both killed more than a thousand people. But while Katrina devastated New Orleans, Stan wreaked his havoc in central America, mainly Guatemala. No prizes for guessing then, which storm has been referred to some 3,105 times in UK papers since then, and which a mere 34…

…Vesey's report reserves its strongest condemnation for reporting of the crisis following hurricane Stan: “The hurricane Stanley emergency stands out as the worst indictment of the selfish western approach to humanitarian disasters. There is no obvious significant economic or political interest. Consequently, there is virtually no coverage of any kind beyond the first few days.”

It has always been so, says Leonard Doyle, foreign editor at the Independent. “We have an enormous fascination with the US but we're allowed to have that. It's not a judgment on our degree of interest in central America. We can be interested in that too, but perhaps not as much so because it's not as much on our radar.”

He adds: “Whether it's true or not, we have an expectation that in Guatemala the houses are built on hills without proper foundations and there's mudslides and all the rest of it. You look away in despair and say this is a tragedy of the developing world. But you do not expect it in the world's superpower, which makes it fascinating.”