Internews Network and Internews Europe developed the Earth Journalism Network (EJN) to empower and enable journalists from developing countries to cover the environment more effectively. EJN establishes networks of environmental journalists in countries where they don't exist, and builds their capacity where they do, through training workshops and development of training materials, support for production and distribution, and dispersing small grants.
EJN establishes networks of environmental journalists in countries where they don't exist, and builds their capacity where they do, through training workshops and development of training materials, support for production and distribution, and dispersing small grants. At present, we have partnerships with:
EJN has formed a partnership with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to launch the Biodiversity Media Alliance (BMA) this year. This alliance was created to provide a resource to help journalists’ reporting on the world’s biodiversity, what its decline means for humanity, and how it can be tackled.
So far, over 700 biodiversity experts joined the BMA’s online network, http://biodiversitymedia.ning.com/, which is designed to build bridges between journalists and information sources.
EJN formed a partnership with ChinaDialogue.net to focus on the climate change issues affecting the Himalayan region and downstream countries. The Third Pole Project (3PP) was created to improve media coverage of the impacts of climate change on the region – most significantly, on the effect of melting glaciers on the major Asian river basins.
Stories can be found on www.thethirdpole.net which translates the content into English and Chinese, to improve trans-boundary links.
In order to raise the quantity and quality of climate change media coverage around the world in the lead up to the Copenhagen Summit, Internews launched and carried for the Earth Journalism Awards – a global media competition to honor 2009’s best climate change stories.
Seven regional awards – Latin America, Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, EC, Australia & New Zealand (which grouped the developed countries), Eurasia, East Asia, and South Asia – and seven thematic awards – Climate Change & Adaptation, Climate Change & Diplomacy, Climate Change & Energy, Climate Change & Nature, Climate Change Negotiations, Human Voices, and MTV Positive Change – were allocated by independent juries. In addition, the public was able to vote online for their favorite report (of the 14 winners), which received the Global Public award.
In total, over 900 journalists from nearly 150 countries registered for the contest, which was adjudicated by regional and international juries. The award-winning stories can be found online at http://awards.earthjournalism.org/winners.
The award winners were brought to the Copenhagen Summit, where they were able to produce stories for their home media, and were honored at an awards ceremony featuring key figures on climate and environmental issues.
In 2007, Internews’ EJN joined forces with Panos and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) to form the Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP). CCMP has brought over 100 journalist fellows from developing countries and a variety of media to the 2007, 2008 and 2009 United Nations Climate Summits. CCMP fellows learn environmental reporting skills, meet with their delegation leaders or heads of state, and collectively produce hundreds of reports for their home media outlets. Many of these stories can be found on the CCMP website: www.climatemediapartnership.org
EJN brought a total of 11 US journalists to the upcoming United Nations climate change conference (COP16) in Cancun, Mexico.
The annual UN climate change conference is the largest and most important global gathering of climate change negotiators, experts, organizations and activists in the world.
Since 2007, EJN – as a member of the Climate Change Media Partnership – has awarded developing country journalists over 150 Fellowships to the climate COPs, enabling them to provide their home audiences with context-specific and locally relevant reports.
This Fellowship not only enabled US journalists to cover the summit and produce over 75 stories, including front-page reports, but also to work with experienced and knowledgeable environmental journalists from around the world, providing them with a multifaceted understanding of climate change’s global impact and reach.
