"The climate crisis: when journalists feel the heat"

The threats posed to humanity from environmental crisis and global warming demand quality story-telling by journalists and editors. This webinar focuses on the role played by news media in explaining, analyzing, and finding solutions to the climate emergency. Our FJA environmental journalism winners explore the challenges and risks reporters face and will provide powerful insights on how to cover this vital story.

The panel:

Andrés Bermúdez Liévano

Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (Colombia)

Ruth Maclean

West Africa Bureau Chief, The New York Times (Senegal)

Caleb Kabanda

Freelance journalist, camera operator, field producer (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Karla Mendes

Investigative reporter, Mongabay (Brazil); Board Member, SEJ; Fellow of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Rainforest Investigations Network Investigations Network

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Introduction by Barbara Trionfi, Former Executive Director at the International Press Institute, FJA Jury Member

Moderator: Aidan White, President of the Ethical Journalism Network and Honorary Advisor for the Fetisov Journalism Awards

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Each year, around Earth Day on April 22, the FJA presents its annual awards. One of the four categories is journalism that highlights the global and regional story of the battle to save the planet from the consequences of environmental neglect and climate change.

The webinar will look at journalists and news media report on this issue. How they deal with the technical challenges, understanding the science and telling their stories in a way that is accessible for the public.

It will focus, particularly, on the human story – the impact of environmental damage and climate change on the lives of the people affected. It will examine how journalism can give a voice to those most at risk – often indigenous communities – who suffer through the commercial exploitation of precious land and resources.

Many of the stories are of human suffering, but there are also uplifting and inspiring reports from the regions most affected that provide hope for the future.

Whether reporting from Africa, the Arctic or the Amazon, the climate story requires commitment, above all, to keeping to the facts, avoiding sensationalism and bias from corporate and political centres of power, and providing stylish narratives laced with care and sensitivity.

How do reporters get access to reliable sources?

How do they keep themselves safe at a time when climate activists and investigative journalists are targeted and sometimes killed for their work?

And how do news media ensure that their climate stories avoid reinforcing bleak predictions of imminent disaster and point instead to viable solutions to the crisis?

This webinar focuses on winning stories and how they were told in order to find answers to some of these searching questions.