Telling the Climate Change Story

Mr. Farayi Madziwa, CGA Programme Manager

For over 20 years, May 3rd marks World Press Freedom Day. It is a celebration of the fundamental principles of press freedom and an opportunity to renew the commitment to freedom of expression.

This year the Heinrich Böll Stiftung partnered with the Media Council of Kenya for the Regional Journalists Convention and the 3rd Annual Journalism Excellence Awards. The Convention brought together delegates from East and Southern African countries and looked among other topics at the role of mass media in Africa’s development agenda.

During the official opening President Uhuru Kenyatta posed questions on how media could contribute to national development. “There is no clear reason why the wealth of information available on early warning systems for droughts and floods, […], should not be made available to every Kenyan who can read a newspaper, listen to a radio, or watch a TV”, the President said.

Farayi Madziwa, Climate Governance in Africa Programme Manager at Heinrich Böll Stiftung South Africa, agreed that media has the responsibility to inform people about the effects of climate change. However, climate change issues are often complex and technical. Journalists need the right knowledge and training to have power, reach and integrity in their reporting.

To address some of these knowledge gaps, Heinrich Böll Stiftung and Inter Press Service (IPS) Africa have published a book “Climate Governance in Africa: A handbook for Journalists”. Launching the handbook during the Convention, Mr. Madziwa invited journalists to use the book to reach new audiences: “it will help to bring the issues home with a greater understanding of climate change as a rights and developmental issue and as an area in which journalists are central players in influencing policies and practices towards a more sustainable future”.

During the 3rd Annual Journalism Excellence Awards (AJEA), Katrin Seidel, the Director Heinrich Böll Stiftung, East and Horn of Africa, presented the awards to the winners of the Environment and Gender categories. The Heinrich Boell Stiftung would like to congratulate all AJEA Winners 2014.

The videos below highlight key events during the AJEA awards.