Thanks to generous funding from the Grantham Foundation, and individual members and friends of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), we are pleased to announce grants totaling $12,500 to five journalism projects selected in SEJ’s Fund for Environmental Journalism Winter 2013 grant cycle. Pictured: FEJ grantee Douglas Haynes.

Here is the text of an e-mail reply of January 22, 2014, from CDC Public Affairs Director Barbara Reynolds to the letter of January 20 from SEJ and SPJ on press access obstacles after the Charleston, WV, water contamination crisis.

Here is the text of an e-mail reply of January 22, 2014, from CDC Public Affairs Director Barbara Reynolds to the letter of January 20 from SEJ and SPJ on press access obstacles after the Charleston, WV, water contamination crisis.

Journalists had trouble overcoming EPA and CDC press office obstacles and getting access to agency experts and officials during this month's drinking water contamination crisis in Charleston, WV. SEJ and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) have sent a letter of complaint to heads of both agencies and their press offices. We urge them to adopt specific practices to end press office stonewalling and increase transparency, especially in times of crisis.

[UPDATE: Reply of January 29, 2014, from EPA [21] Assoc. Adm. for Ext. Affairs Tom Reynolds]

[UPDATE: Reply of January 22, 2014, from CDC [13] Public Affairs Director Barbara Reynolds]

[UPDATE: "CDC: Pregnant Women Should Have Been Warned About Water Sooner [22]," Charleston Gazette, January 22, 2014, by Ken Ward Jr.]

In November 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the Central Philippines. Hundreds of journalists were injured and/or left homeless. They still need aid to rebuild their lives and continue reporting. SEJ is now collecting tax-deductible gifts earmarked for environmental journalists in the Philippines. SEJ board member Imelda Abano, president of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists, said after visiting the devastated country, "We've seen too much. Colleagues need our help, our immediate assistance. Let’s give them hope, and the support of fellow journalists." Photo (R): Many journalists lived in this once-subdivision, now an ocean of debris.