In 2016, we saw numerous news-breaking humanitarian crises.
We watched civilians in besieged Aleppo sending heartbreaking pleas for rescue. We followed in shock when yet another overloaded vessel full of desperate people sank in the Mediterranean Sea. And we witnessed the meticulously documented military offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul. Yet these headlines were just the tip of an evergrowing humanitarian iceberg. Underneath these more visible crises lay many more that never made it into the news.
Media attention and fundraising for humanitarian causes are closely intertwined. Watching people suffering on TV prompts many of us to engage and donate – this is widely known as “the CNN effect.” Journalists need independent access to report from the ground. This might explain why the humanitarian situation in two “limited access” countries that rank the lowest in the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders - Eritrea and North Korea - are among the top crises that received almost zero media attention in 2016.