ERNO: Raising South-East European Public Broadcasters Awareness and Knowledge about Climate Change
Public broadcasters are among the most effective media in delivering knowledge on climate change mitigation opportunities and adaptation processes in raising public awareness through the dissemination of scientific data and options comprehensible by the public at large. However, most regional journalists know little or nothing about the issue of climate change and its effect on the viewers. The reasons why climate change issues are poorly covered or go unreported are many and complex. Journalists need more environmental training and networking opportunities. Environment, science and climate change are not considered prestigious beats, and are often assigned to young and inexperienced journalists, or to staff who are also asked to cover a huge range of issues from health to agriculture. They do not have the time or budget to research stories in-depth, and very often lack scientific expertise. Recent studies suggest climate change coverage is improving in developing countries as editors (and governments) are taking more notice of it. But progress is slow. Donors who fund climate change work usually treat media and communications support as an afterthought. But the research and action plans they fund will have limited effect if they are not communicated to the public and policymakers. The media has both the reach and credibility to make all stakeholders take climate change issues seriously and policy-makers to undertake timely action. Participation of the journalists / producers from the ERNO member PSBs at the workshop on the media reporting on the climate change issues will strengthen regional collaboration between them. This will optimise the quality and relevance of programming and reporting on global climate change and encourage production / dissemination of relevant audiovisual content at the local and regional level to give voice to populations affected by climate change. New media networks must be established to focus specifically on climate change and its impacts, particularly using digital platforms. Presence of Eurovision news editors at the workshop, who already participated in similar projects, would additionally contribute to the quality of the discussion and would secure the fulfilment of the objectives of such a workshop. This project aims to overcoming the reporting challenges about the most important climate change stories in the SEE region; improve the quality and quantity of content relating to climate change through capacity-building, networking and programme exchange; encouraging the production and dissemination of the relevant audiovisual content at the local and regional level to give voice to the populations affected by climate change; facilitating access to the relevant scientific information for the journalists reporting on the climate change issues at the SEE PSBs; and increase journalists' knowledge on the climate change and its immediate effects on other global issues, like poverty, disease, hunger and insecurity.
In the approved work plan for this project the following activities have been implemented: Consultation with ERNO members and preparation of the training materials for the workshop / training; On-line discussion organized about the ways on which the coverage of these issues have already been made by Public TV stations to adopt the content of the workshop to media staff's needs; Uploading some examples of existing media material to ERNO web-site for pre-screening; Organization of practical workshops / training on cooperation among current affairs/documentary departments based on the current model of cooperation among members of ERNO and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and on the concrete procedures for production and best possible media reporting coverage of the climate change issues relevant for the SEE region over four days in Sofia, Bulgaria for 15 media professionals, (with a presence of 2 ERNO Coordination Office's staff members with the role of facilitators/media experts and organizers, and 1 EBU representative); Gathering of feedback from the participating TV stations; On-line discussion of workshop participants and ERNO Coordination Office about the results of the project.