Congress report - European Health Forum Gastein

Forum I: Health in other Policies and Sectors
Does the media have a role in promoting health policy and bridging
the gap between policy and implementation? PR or “ER”?
Shirin Wheeler
Abstract
My position - as a member of the news media and in particular television- stems from the
premise that it is not up to the media to bridge policy / implementation gaps. It cannot be a
propaganda tool for government, politicians or the medical profession.
You cannot rely on the media to disseminate information on health policy. The message the
media seizes upon may not be the one you believe is most important as a policy maker.
But as a policy maker bridging these gaps successfully will somewhere along the way involve
the media. When the issue and its relevance to policy is translated into pictures, radio and
popular press its impact can be enormous . Television for example has the potential to
articulate visually and verbally making links between health issues and other policy sectors
for example respiratory illness and transport policy in ways
Speech not available.
Carlos Ribeiro
Abstract and speech not available.
The Swedish Experience
Bosse Pettersson
Abstract
In Sweden a green paper – “Health on equal terms” – for a national public health policy was
published by a Parliamentary Committee in December 2000. It presents 18 broad national
objectives, further broken down into 50 sub-objectives to which proposals for indicators are
linked. 14 of the broad objectives are expressed in terms of health determinants and the
remaining 4 deals with basic infrastructures for public health. The Governments white paper
is planned to be presented to the Parliament in December 2001.
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