Sierra Leone News: EPA Capacitates Journalists on Climate Change
By George Williams
Environmental Protection Agency — Sierra Leone (EPA-SL) in collaboration with National Adaptation Plan Global Network on Wednesday held a workshop for journalists on knowledge, skills and attitude relevant to reporting on climate change issues in order to impact policy making in Sierra Leone.
The workshop was held at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Aberdeen in Freetown.
Director General of EPA-SL, Momodu A. Bah said that “the general objective of organizing the workshop is to enhance the capacity of media representatives in dealing with and covering the key aspect of climate change and it multifaceted impact on the people of Sierra Leone with the sole aim to increase public awareness and engage local and national adaption initiatives; to influence public opinion and to influence debate on policies issues”.
He said that there is the need for media capacity building program in order to increase the capacity of journalists in Sierra Leone for them to understand and report on climate change, thereby fostering greater and improved climate change related coverage.
Bah further stated that ”in response to international commitment and national needs, the Government new direction through EPA in consultation with relevant stakeholders in undertaking its National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process has presently developed and validated a National framework on climate change.”
“Sierra Leone is faced with a range of climate change challenges including deforestation, biodiversity loss, costal degradation, pollution of our fresh water resources, improper waste disposal and climate variability and change causing an increase and severe disruption of social and material loss causing economic and physiological burden to our nation in the frequency and severity of disasters such as flooding and mudslide around us,” he added.
“Climate change refers to long term trends such as the increase in the global average temperature over the past century with immediate impact on less predictable weather, rising in temperature and sea level and more extreme event such as drought, floods and storms happening more often,” Bah said.
Emmanuel B. Turay, Media Specialist, Ministry of Information, said the media in Sierra Leone should be provided with necessary equipment in creating public awareness and shaping the public perception on climate change.
He said that journalists must be determined to inform readers, listeners and viewers on causes, threats and consequences of climate change.
He said that there is information deficiency in the topic of climate change by media houses. “News contents across the country are constantly flooded by politic and economic packages leaving less or no agenda set for climate change deliberations. The nature or environmental story only makes the headlines in times catastrophe,” he said.
Mr. Abdul Conteh, Communication and Media Consultant, highlighted that Journalists are not focusing on climate change coverage because of the lack of environmental and scientific training; lack of training resources or support from news editors or sponsors; and limited access to data on environmental conservation. He added that dealing with the priority of other subjects such as terrorism, poverty, economy, politics, and international relation; government agencies as well as the private sector tend to influence the media presentation of environmental issues therefore causing less or no report by journalist on climate change.
He further admonished journalist to be advocates for change in improving the quality of the planet; to educate the people about the serious state of the environment, to use the power of news media to bring about changes to improve the quality of air, water, wildlife and natural resources; to provide platform for discussion and deliberations among policymakers, activists, academics, corporations and citizens to work towards transformation and a more sustainable environment in order to create the awareness on climate change.
