M E D I A
You are behind the press badge of an environmental journalist flying towards Denmark in mid-June. Enjoying delectable shrimp and white wine, you peer out the window, fascinated by the sapphire blue sea and the flatness of the marine lands below — ideal for the countless windmills charging the Viking plains.
Great material for your first story. But what about the rest of the Ministerial Conference you've been sent to cover in Aarhus? All those directives, conventions, workshops, protocols, initiatives and policies? What about all the players — governments, business, NGOs, international organisations, West and East? What about the side events and how do you decide on whether to check out the NGO Eco-Forum, stay at the main event, or catch somebody influential for a spontaneous interview in the hallway? And you can't afford the prices at the Organic Bridge restaurant in the main center, so should you skip off to a local restaurant or search for some freebies at the press conference?
Keeping an eye on all that's going on, you create system from chaos, hoping not to miss anything that's newsy. Back at the hotel, you sift through forests of paperwork and press releases. At the Press Center, you surf the Danish website. And finally, how will you make it all interesting enough?
"It's not easy to translate all of this expert information into news for the general public," said Vesselin Seykov from the Bulgarian News Service, adding that he would have to fit it all into no more than 40 lines of text each day to send back home.
Seykov was among some 40 colleagues from throughout CEE and the NIS who had been invited by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency to participate in an environmental reporting workshop before the main Aarhus event and to cover Aarhus for stories back home.
"The ones who came here became more confident about what they do," said Albena Arnaudova, another Bulgarian journalist, adding that they were made to feel much more a part of, and knowledgeable about, the Environment for Europe process. For many, it was also the first time to share reporting problems with colleagues from the region.
After agreeing to the reporting law of "Show it, don't tell it!" the journalists raised major problems affecting their trade during the workshop. Government-funded environmental media in Lithuania are too small and unknown to be effective. Russian media concentrates heavily on economic and political issues. Even in England, according to The Guardian's environmental editor John Vidal, environmental media coverage is often reduced to cute television shows about wildlife and columns by scientific writers who applaud science rather than expose damages to the environment.
"There aren't enough environmental pages in the mainstream media," said Magdalena Ziakova from Slovakia, adding that better connecting environment with issues personally affecting readers was a solution, including stories affecting health and children. "Through children we'll catch the attention and souls of adults," agreed Russia's Tatjana Selivanovskaia.
"We should do more to make an ecological lifestyle attractive, to compete with a consumer lifestyle," said Natalia Velikodnaia from Russian NTV Sveda. Journalists agreed that more had to be said about avoiding the consumption practices of the West and environmental risks of products.
One question arousing significant debate was the qualifications needed to become a good environmental journalist, and the balance between being an environmental expert and a journalist. "First you're always a journalist," said The Guardian's Vidal, adding that environmental reporters have to understand international, political, industrial, economic, science and health issues. "There is no area that is not covered," said Vidal. But without some understanding of environmental processes and practices, journalists could be easily led to promote environmentally damaging activities in their coverage, such as monocultural reforestation.
Vidal took it one step further by saying that "government and business don't want us to ask questions, and that's why we should. We must challenge government and industry. It's not a safe profession."
Participants unanimously supported making environmental news more interesting for their readers. For example, what better for those stuck in the big city than to have a TV show about how nature was changing at that moment outside the city, said Uldis Cekulis from Latvia's Wildlife and Environmental Film Productions. They also agreed on the need to translate information from experts into something understandable.
Bulgaria's Seykov covers science, environment, technology and medicine abroad. "The biggest issues for me here were the Convention and energy issues. Bulgaria has old and inefficient technology. And people are concerned about health and petrol and chemicals. There was also the Ministerial Declaration, and biodiversity, which is very good in Bulgaria."
And all this in only 40 lines each day.
