September 2008

Brave New World for Earth Journalism Network

Empowering Local Media to Cover the Environment

Dear Friend,

For the last three years, I have been splitting my time working as country director for Internews in Thailand while helping Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) to develop and expand its programs. I am happy to share with you that we finally have the resources for EJN to have full-time staff and a dedicated office.

As full-time director now for EJN, I have recently been joined by Po Garden, EJN’s new climate change project director. Po is a Thai national and former journalist with a Master’s degree in environmental economics. He has spent the last six years as a researcher at the Chiang Mai University-affiliated Unit for Social and Environmental Research. He also makes documentary videos.

Po is excited to be working with Internews’ EJN program and is looking forward to making a real difference in helping people adapt to a challenging future.

EJN will remain based out of Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. Our vision is to keep our staff and facilities small, supporting a larger, virtual network of journalists, media groups and organizations dedicated to building media capacity to cover the environment. We will continue to focus on growing the network and supporting local institutions using the power of information to raise awareness and change policies and public behavior.

Joining Po and me will be EJN’s new administrative assistant, Sirikul Detrusri, or Aor (“Aw”) as she likes to be known. Aor has already proven invaluable in getting the new office up and running.

Below we describe some of our exciting new projects, especially our work training and mentoring reporters in developing countries to cover climate change accurately and effectively. I welcome your feedback.

Sincerely,

James Fahn
Executive Director
Earth Journalism Network
A project of Internews Network

• Climate Change Initiative Heats Up
• Q & A with Imelda Abano, Filipina Climate Change Reporter
• Vietnamese Environmental Reporter Wins Reuters IUCN Award

Climate Change Initiative Heats Up

Interest in the Earth Journalism Network’s climate change media program has never been hotter. Seed funded by the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation and the Germehausen Foundation, several new activities are now underway or in the planning stages. There is clearly a growing awareness that empowering local media to provide better coverage is a vital and scalable strategy to grapple with this most global of issues. (More)

• Climate Change Media Partnership: Have Fellowship, Will Travel
• Third Pole Project: Melting Glaciers, Overflowing Rivers
• Environmental Journalism Workshops: Chinese and Filipino Journalists On the Green Beat
• Projects in Development: Geo-Blogging on Deforestation and Climate Change Training

Q & A with Imelda Abano, Filipina Climate Change Reporter

"Local journalists like me get too caught up with the small picture. But working on climate change or environmental issues provides a much more open perspective. I have gotten much inspiration from the real people in the communities most vulnerable in the global climate change scenarios."

− Imelda Abano
Filipina journalist and Climate Change Fellow
(Full Interview)

VIDEO: Internews Europe’s Mark Harvey interviews Imelda Abano at Bali Climate Change Summit, December 2007

Vietnamese Environmental Reporter Wins Reuters IUCN Award

It has been a rewarding year for Hoang Quoc Dzung and his colleagues at the Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists (VFEJ). Dzung recently learned that he will receive his third environmental journalism award this year, the prestigious Reuters IUCN Environmental Media Award for the Asian region. For Dzung, this award comes on the heels of winning Vietnam’s National Environmental Journalism Award early this year, and then an Internews Media Leadership Award in June. (More)