From Global Information Network
May 3 (GIN) – Speaking to a roomful of opinion writers, State Department diplomat Johnnie Carson gave them an earful on the shortage of good writing on news-making issues in Africa.

Coverage of the continent, he said, was “good but insufficient,” giving readers barely enough information to distinguish Abidjan from South Sudan or Tanzania from Namibia.

“What we would like is more, with greater detail and greater differentiation,” he told members of the National Conference of Editorial Writers on Monday.

“There is progress on the continent,” Carson said, and the news media should avoid focusing exclusively on states experiencing “death and destruction” or the “authoritarian and ruthlessness of certain leaders.”

The Editors conference was preceded by the group’s Minority Writers Seminar, an annual event now in its 16th year.