Since Norway and Indonesia have signed the letter of Intent agreement on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), Indonesia is expected to deliver some key milestones by the end of this year. Media play an important role in informing the public and it’s important that journalists have good understanding about the issues.
A two-day workshop on “How should we report a climate change and REDD+” for Indonesian media, held in Pekanbaru, Riau province on 25-26 September, gathered many local journalists to learn more about REDD+ issues.
“Media plays a critical role not only in presenting hard news issues such as illegal logging and other forest-related crimes or events, but to also act as an agent of change by providing in-depth coverage to make people understand climate change, forestry and REDD+ issues more comprehensively,” said Mr. Petrus Suryadi of Dr. Soetomo Press Institute.
Some of the questions at the seminar included “How can a journalist stay objective when their employer has a close relationship with companies that violate environmental regulations?”, “How can journalists cover environmental issues if they are given very limited opportunity for field visits?”, “How can journalists get information on gender and climate change?”.
“Ministry of Forestry has built continuous communication with media on climate change and REDD+ related issues, but most journalists still find it challenging to understand the technical jargon which in turn discourage them from covering the issues. The workshop can help to build local journalists’ capacity”, said Dr. Niken Sakuntaladewi, of the Forestry Research and Development Agency (FORDA), Ministry of Forestry.
