Journalists for Change – the Social Dimension of Environmental Challenges

From 10th to 14th November, our second journalist workshop “Journalists for Change – The Social Dimension of Environmental Challenges” took place in Lviv. 14 journalists from the EaP countries and Russia discussed environmental issues and were provided with strategies on how best to report on them. The workshop, like the first one in Odessa, also served as a platform for the participants to share their ideas and experiences in the field of social and environmental journalism.

On the first day, Inga Nikagosian, Strategic Communications Manager at Georgia’s Environmental Outlook (GEO), talked about the environment as a crosscutting issue in journalism. Then the participants heard about civic environmental monitoring from Iryna Chernysh, an eco-activist, sociologist, and co-founder of the Save Dnipro initiative and Ukraine's first ecological chat bot, “SaveEcoBot”. On the second day, Suren Deheryan, chairman of the Armenian NGO “Journalists for the Future”, talked about new genres and formats in the online media. The third day focused on how to produce good journalistic content on social-environmental topics. Oleg Khomenok, a media trainer from the Internews Network in Ukraine, provided the participants with a step-by-step manual for investigative journalism in the field of climate change, energy, waste management, pollution, and other environmental issues.

Practical parts of the workshop included a simulation of a press conference between ministers and journalists, group work on several topics, and a session on creating info graphics, facilitated by Suren Deheryan. Anatoly Shalaev, a media trainer and investigative journalist, accompanied the group on a field trip to Novyi Razdol, a former sulphure mine, where the participants learned about the detrimental consequences of the mining and chemical industry. The participants also got the chance to speak with Andrii Sadoviy, the mayor of Lviv, about environmental problems in Ukraine in general and the situation in Lviv in particular. Lviv is one out of four municipalities and the only major city in Ukraine with the proclaimed goal to fully transit to renewable energies by 2050. However, there is still a long way to go and especially the issue of public transport poses a huge challenge.