Two major humanitarian disasters in 2010 were covered very differently by the media: why did the earthquake in Haiti attract so much more of the Italian media's attention than the floods in Pakistan? At the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, a panel discussed the aspects of a natural disaster that lead to more or less media coverage, with a specific focus on Italy.

Looking at morning and evening newscasts on major Italian TV channels, there were 150 devoted to Haiti, 88 to Pakistan and more than 350 on the summer's heatwave in Italy, pointed out Sergio Cecchini, director of communications at Italy's branch of Doctors Without Borders.

Giovanni Porzio, special correspondent for Italian magazine Panorama, believes that Haiti received more media attention partly because of the sudden, dramatic nature of the disaster, partly due to timing, and partly because of geo-political considerations. The Haitian earthquake caused immediate large scale destruction, and this and the looting which followed were good subjects for photography and TV. The crisis in Pakistan, however, built up gradually, as the water level rose over several weeks, and was consequently a less immediately compelling tragedy.

With regards to timing, the problem of 'donors' fatigue' which is frequently also reflected in the attitude of the media, affected coverage of Pakistan. Many resources had already been used in Haiti, whose earthquake hit at the beginning of the year, and there wasn't such an incentive to go to Pakistan six months later, Porzio said. This feeling was exacerbated by a certain reluctance to go to a country that is on the frontline of terrorism and often viewed as a 'rogue state'.

Paola Zanuttini, a La Repubblica journalist, said that the situation in Pakistan was too complicated to adequately explain to people, and that the perception of the country is also negatively affected by the Taliban.

Porzio also described a mining disaster in China which left 47 dead, but which received no media coverage because it occurred at the same time as the rescue of the Chilean miners. This is but one example of a contradiction in media, he stressed: disasters are often ignored or not given attention in proportion to their severity.

Both Porzio and Zanuttini said that Italians are only interested in tragedies that affect Italians. "We are used to being very moved by the loss of an Italian soldier in Afghanistan then we forget about Afghanistan altogether," Porzio said. "Italians are provincial" in their attitudes to news, Zanuttini added.