When major events occur in our digital age, the public can offer as much valuable information as professional journalists do. In Pakistan, for example, citizens have been contributing reports on the latest flooding disaster through cell phones to the Pakistani citizen journalism service SeenReport.com.

Every journalist covering a hot zone or an area where natural disasters are likely should have a crisis reporting plan ready to implement.

Nieman Reports, part of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, has published a comprehensive resource for journalists about coverage of a pandemic flu, available at http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/newsitem.aspx?id=100114.

June 18, 2008 (Translated from Arabic) --