More than 450 journalists and writers from around the globe are meeting in Melbourne from 16 April to 20 April for the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists.

Discussion and debate will include key issues in the reporting of science in all forms of media and at local and global levels.

Among delegates will be the editors-in-chief of Nature and Scientific American, the science editors of the Economist, the Financial Times, Asahi Shimbun, Islam Online, and senior reporters from Science, the Toronto Star, BBC TV and radio, BBC World, Radio New Zealand, and many other media organisations.

Journalists from more than 50 countries are participating, including China, the Middle East, Korea, the US, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.

The conference will open with discussion on the corruption of science by politics. US reporter Chris Mooney will talk about the problems he exposed in his book, The Republicanization of Science.

China’s Jia Hepeng will report on the challenges of reporting on disease outbreaks like SARS in a session chaired by the ABC’s Robyn Williams.

The conference website is at: www.scienceinmelbourne2007.org