December 6, 2007

At the Bali Climate Summit, Developing Country Journalists Blog and Broadcast

At the UN Climate Summit in Bali, Internews is mounting an unprecedented program to improve media coverage of global climate change in the developing world. Internews has brought more than 40 Climate Media Fellows - journalists from developing countries - to ensure that media reports on the international negotiations reach those most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming.

Hailing from places as diverse as Uganda, China and the Caribbean, the Climate Media Fellows are learning to get the word out on the negotiations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Internews is encouraging and supporting coverage on mainstream national and community radio, local TV, youth media, Internet reports, blogs and the virtual reality platform Second Life.

James Fahn/Internews On an Internews field trip to explore the interaction between coastal resource management and climate change, Climate Media Fellows interviewed an environmentalist in Bali who works to make the coral harvesting business sustainable.

"Our aim is to help local media stimulate the public debate required for these countries to adapt to and mitigate climate change," says James Fahn, Director of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network. "Bringing these journalists to Bali to cover the climate negotiations is only the first step. But it is a vital first step in closing the information vacuum that we have identified."

Among some 190 nations represented at the Bali conference, reporters from developed countries are covering the meeting in force. But journalists from countries highlighted by the UN as most vulnerable to drought, flooding, or severe tropical storm activity, such as Sudan and Bangladesh, have been largely absent to date from the key international negotiations to decide what agreement should replace the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012.

Climate Media Fellows Program

In response, the Earth Journalism Network (EJN), a project of Internews, has formed a partnership with Panos and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) to bring Climate Media Fellows from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean to the UN Climate Summit.

• Daily mentoring support from the former environmental editor of the BBC;

• A Climate Media Fellows’ website and blogging facility that contains over 100 articles filed by the Climate Media Fellows to their home media;

• A field trip allowing the Climate Media Fellows to see first hand how local coral reefs - a vital carbon link - are being threatened by large scale land reclamation and unsustainable excavation for overseas export;

• An Indonesian radio pool of five journalists delivering four reports a day from the Climate Summit to over 68 radio stations across the conference host country of Indonesia, reaching some of the nation’s most isolated communities;

• A collaboration with One World.net and its Virtual Bali Conference on Second Life that has enabled Climate Media Fellows from India and Jamaica to report back from Bali to a growing crowd on the Second Life Climate Island (see YouTube video).

• A partnership with MTV to ensure that the issues at the heart of the Bali Conference reach youth audiences across the developing world;

• A panel discussion on “Overcoming the Communications Deficit”, a media clinic with experts on key issues brought in to speak directly to the Climate Media Fellows; and

• Two Development and Climate Days that will include meetings for the Climate Media Fellows with high-ranking ministers and officials attending the Summit.

"The industrialized countries that have been historically responsible for greenhouse gas emissions have a duty to ensure that millions of people in the developing world — those on the frontline of the impacts of climate change — have access to information on how to prepare for the changes ahead," says Mark Harvey, Director of Development for Internews Europe.

The Earth Journalism Network (EJN), a project of Internews, seeks to empower and enable journalists to cover the environment more effectively. By working with journalists the world over, EJN aims to improve access to quality environmental news and information and engage more voices in environmental policy dialogue on an international scale.

More information on the Earth Journalism Network