Antara 13 May 09;
Manado, North Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - A strong partnership between science and the media is needed to overcome environmental problems, including climate change, Robert Lee, a UNESCO Program Specialist for Environment Sciences said.
Journalists and scientists should work closely together as the media had great skill in telling interesting stories that could catch people`s attention, while scientists were good in collecting scientific facts and data important to protect the environment, Lee said at the OANA Workshop on "The Role of the media in preserving the global environment", here on Wednesday.
Planet Earth was experiencing disasters such as floods, droughts, sea level rise, air pollution, wild fires, desertification, and ecosystem destruction, he said.
Scientists have sent alarms for decades about the climate change and global warming as well as other environmental problems, but it seemed it did get adequate attention from the public, Lee of the Jakarta-based UNESCO regional office, said.
He believed that the media play an active role in collecting, producing and distributing news on the environment, which could possible change the attitude of the society, like in saving energy and water in their daily life.
Lee also emphasized that the media should not only report on environment and scientific information, but also should participate actively in dialogs which lead to policy and decision makings.
"The media should form strong communication with scientists," he told the workshop`s participants among others coming from Vietnam, China, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Venezuela, Malaysia, Indonesia, Qatar, Brazil, Suriname, Cuba, and Canada.
He said UNESCO Jakarta Office would have a media and climate change program to promote journalists` excellence in reporting climate change.
The OANA workshop is being organized by OANA (Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies), here May 13-15, coinciding with the implementation of the World Ocean Conference (WOC) which is also being organized here, May 11-14.
The Workshop is organized by the OANA Secretariat in ANTARA News Agency, with the cooperation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Communication and Informatics Ministry of Indonesia.
In the last day of the workshop, the journalists will join a field visit to Bunaken marine park, around 10 km of Manado, to see the rich marine biodiversity of the protected marine park.
OANA, which was established in 1961 with the support of UNESCO, now has 40 member news agencies from 33 countries. (*)
Media Can Help Educate Public On Global Change, Says Indonesian Minister
S.Chandravathani, Bernama 13 May 09;
MANADO (Indonesia), May 13 (Bernama) -- International media can play a crucial role in disseminating information on global warming and climate which have now become hot topics, to the public, Indonesian Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries First Admiral (Rtd) Fredy Numberi said here.
"The role of the media is very essential to increase awareness and disseminate useful climate information to effectively guide public debate and understanding about the weather, climate and climate change," he said.
Fredy said this in his keynote address at the Organisation of the Asia Pacific News Agency (OANA) workshop on "The Role of Media on Preserving Global Environment" here Tuesday.
The four-day workshop, which started Tuesday is held on the sidelines of the World Ocean Conference (WOC) and Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) summit.
Some 25 journalists from OANA member agencies, such as ANTARA (Indonesia), Bernama (Malaysia), Kyodo (Japan), Yonhap (South Korea), VNA (Vietnam), QNA (Qatar) and Xinhua (China), are participating in the workshop. Others include visiting journalists from Latin America and Indonesian senior high school students.
Fredy urged the people of Asia and other developing countries to join hands to have a better understanding of climate change through dialogue and active participation as well as accurate communication which would be the first step towards preserving global environment for the future generations.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Minister of Environment Dr Rachmat Witoelar said that the climate change, which was an on-going problem and has been in existence since 30 to 40 years ago, should be addressed urgently before the global environment worsens.
However, he stressed that to settle the environment problem especially in Indonesia, and other relevant countries, these countries should consider settling the poverty among the people.
"Poverty and environmental issues are two sides of the same coin. Those living on a small island, and those who are not well off in developing countries, will suffer when it comes to climate change."
As such, he said that developing countries should consider helping poorer countries by giving loans or grants, so as to overcome the poverty, as well as to preserve the weather and climate.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Programme Specialist for Environment Sciences Dr Robert Lee said that person to person communication was perhaps the most effective form of information dissemination in developing countries and could influence the decision making and policies.
He said the media was portrayed as "story tellers" and that communications had already been proven as a powerful tool for global environment preservation.
"Mass media broadcasters have strong skills to touch people's lives by educating them, so as the people will do something on how to preserve climate change," Dr Lee explained.
He said that over 70 percent of environment disasters in the world such as flooding, drought, avian flu disease and dry spells were caused or exacerbated by changing climate conditions and unprecedented pressures on the planet's land, waters and ocean, forests and other natural resources.
He suggested that journalists worked with scientists to keep up to date on the latest developments, understand the significance of research findings and identify the information most relevant to people's everyday lives.
"Networking frameworks, where the media can meet and interact with climate scientists, should be put in place. More training programmes are needed to instruct journalists in climate reporting based on accuracy and objectiveness of the scientific findings," he added.
He said that with a better understanding of the climate, the media could help millions of people to improve the environment.
-- BERNAMA
