Mekong: sustainable news, results 2019
Related project
Mekong: Sustainable NewsVietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are some of the countries most affected by climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution. Faced with these threats, the work carried out by journalists is absolutely critical.
Launched in April 2019, Mekong Sustainable News, which is helping to improve how scientific news topics are processed in the Mekong region, really took off during the summer. In the four countries involved in this project, the political contexts and those surrounding freedom of the press are strained, with the situation constantly deteriorating. Writing reports on sustainable development can prove difficult as it potentially involved criticising the action or inaction of the ruling governments.
With the help of local partners, CFI has set up 17 training courses, six training courses for trainers and a constant mentoring programme for online and environmental journalistic writing. In total, 171 beneficiaries deepened their knowledge of subjects such as pollution and impacts on health and improved their skills in data journalism, using infographics or even video.
Adapting behaviour to climate change
Changes are already evident in the investigations published, which include a plethora of sources and the use of different media (photos, texts, videos). These publications therefore make it possible to inform local populations and political decision-makers in a more efficient way, with a view to adapting behaviour to the impacts of the environmental upheaval.
I took part in this training course because I mainly work on environmental subjects. We journalists need to raise awareness of the impacts of plastic pollution among the public in order to stop its use. I’d like to thank CFI for this training course and I hope that there will be others, especially one covering air pollution.
Ma Khin Khin Htay, journalist at MNTV (Myanmar)
