I think the articles indicate that we can't tell how bad it is because of the coverup. If the USSR had been an ally would Chernobyl be considered as bad an event or would much of the damage have been hidden?
There is no independence in media reporting now, with the exception of the internet, and that source can be very difficult to judge.

Im not saying that the powers that be haven't played it down a bit but you would receive far more radiation exposure from a single chest x-ray than any of us are likely to receive over our lifetimes from the Fukushima event.
Yes, we all know ionizing radiation is bad but its all around us all the time.
Take a gander at this chart;
https://xkcd.com/radiation/
If we were talking about another Chernobyl event that would be different story but this isn't even a fly-speck compared to that.