Reuters AlertNet conducted a poll of more than 100 humanitarian relief organisations and celebrities with an interest in aid, asking them to pick the humanitarian emergency most worthy of media attention this year.
The areas nominated for media attention are some of the most war-torn and ravaged around. Topping the list was the war in the Democratic republic of Congo, which is estimated to have taken at least 10 times as many lives as the December tsunami yet remains largely unreported outside of Africa.
John O'Shea, chief executive of Irish relief agency Goal, said: "It's the worst humanitarian tragedy since the Holocaust. The greatest example on the planet of man's inhumanity to man."
Other human tragedies nominated were northern Uganda, western and southern Sudan, West Africa, Colombia, Chechnya, Nepal and Haiti.
As well those neglected areas, the topics of the global Aids pandemic and other infectious diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, were also named for wanting media attention.
Looking at trends over the four months to the end of February, only one crisis, that in Nepal, where King Gyanendra seized power in a military coup, saw any marked increase in the volume of media coverage.
British actress Helen Mirren, who is set to star as Elizabeth I in an upcoming Channel 4 drama, chose Northern Uganda, where for 18 years a religious group called the Lord's Resistance Army has been waging war against the government and attacking villages, towns and camps.
"Like many people, I didn't have any idea of the scale of this conflict. Nearly 2m people have been made homeless and hundreds of thousands more have been killed," Mirren said.
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