Media role in presenting stronger climate case to world sought
- December 19, 2013, 8:19 pm
- National News
- 79 Views
ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (Online): A one-day discussion on climate change titled “Towards a constructive media coverage of climate change, post COP19 media briefing†was held here on Thursday where climate change experts stressed that government should involve media to report these issues on a regular basis.
The discussion was organize by LEAD Pakistan in collaboration with Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS) and was chaired by Deputy Secretary Climate Change Division Sajjad Haider Yaldram.
IG Forest Syed Nasir Mehmood, ex-DG Environment and Climate Change Jawed Ali Khan, DIF Forest Abdul Munaf, CEO LEAD Pakistan Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, Country Director HBS Britta Petersen and Advisor LEAD Pakistan on climate Change Qamar Zaman Chaudhry were also present on the occasion.
Journalists from different media houses from all four provinces attended the discussion.
Speaking to the journalists Yaldram of Climate change Division said that there are serious communication gaps between media, stakeholders and policy makers. He said that there are also capacity issues as those who write are not capable enough of writing on climate change issues.
“Media needs sensitization and training to translate the issue of climate change in a language that is easy to understand for a common person.†he added.
He said that climate change is not just a challenge but it is also an opportunity. “Pakistan has history of missing all the opportunities because we always started late and never prepared ourselves to address this issue.†he underlined.
The IG Forest Syed Mehmood Nasir said that major reason why majority of our population is unaware about climate change issues is because only English media is covering these issues while neither anyone from civil society is interested to make documents in Urdu language nor Urdu media is interested to cover these issues.
He said that the discussions like today are contributing towards increasing knowledge of journalists about these issues.
CEO LEAD Pakistan Ali Sheikh said that social media and SMS have provided us the opportunity to reach millions of people coming from all the classes.
“Opportunities are there we need to avail them, we need to forge partnership and establish linkages with journalists†he added.
Former DG Met and Advisor LEAD Pakistan on Climate Change Qamar Chaudhry said that media is the most effecting tool for communication and same is for climate change but we cannot blame only media for not covering climate change. He said we need to use the language which is understandable for policy makers and media.
He said media should play its role in bridging communication gap between policy makers and community by reaching to people as widely as possible and to inform common person about the challenges and opportunities of climate change.
“Media should send the right message to the right people and in a language which they can understand while it is the duty of policy makers to provide the right information to media†he added.
DIG Forest Abdul Munaf advised journalist to use their pen to really trigger the change that can really make a big difference because this is a matter of survival for all of us.
Journalist participating in the discussion complained the representatives of Climate Change Division for not updating media on the activities happening in the Division. They suggested that there should be a climate change spokesperson from the division who can support journalists in getting in touch with climate change experts.
They also said that there are very few opportunities given to the journalists to understand the complexity of these issues and suggested more training and opportunities should be provided to them to enhance their knowledge and expertise on these issues.
