MEDIA CAN HELP EDUCATE PUBLIC ON GLOBAL CHANGE, SAYS INDONESIAN MINISTER

From S.Chandravathani

MANADO (Indonesia), May 14 (Bernama) -- International media can play a
crucial role in disseminating information on global warming and climate which
have now become hot topics, to the public, Indonesian Minister of Maritime
Affairs and Fisheries First Admiral (Rtd) Fredy Numberi said here.

"The role of the media is very essential to increase awareness and
disseminate useful climate information to effectively guide public debate and
understanding about the weather, climate and climate change," he said.

Fredy said this in his keynote address at the Organisation of the Asia
Pacific News Agency (OANA) workshop on "The Role of Media on Preserving Global
Environment" here Tuesday.

The four-day workshop, which started Tuesday is held on the sidelines of the
World Ocean Conference (WOC) and Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) summit.

Some 25 journalists from OANA member agencies, such as ANTARA (Indonesia),
Bernama (Malaysia), Kyodo (Japan), Yonhap (South Korea), VNA (Vietnam), QNA
(Qatar) and Xinhua (China), are participating in the workshop. Others include
visiting journalists from Latin America and Indonesian senior high school
students.

Fredy urged the people of Asia and other developing countries to join hands
to have a better understanding of climate change through dialogue and active
participation as well as accurate communication which would be the first step
towards preserving global environment for the future generations.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Minister of Environment Dr Rachmat Witoelar said that
the climate change, which was an on-going problem and has been in existence
since 30 to 40 years ago, should be addressed urgently before the global
environment worsens.

However, he stressed that to settle the environment problem especially in
Indonesia, and other relevant countries, these countries should consider
settling the poverty among the people.

"Poverty and environmental issues are two sides of the same coin. Those
living on a small island, and those who are not well off in developing
countries, will suffer when it comes to climate change."

As such, he said that developing countries should consider helping poorer
countries by giving loans or grants, so as to overcome the poverty, as well as
to preserve the weather and climate.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
Programme Specialist for Environment Sciences Dr Robert Lee said that person to
person communication was perhaps the most effective form of information
dissemination in developing countries and could influence the decision making
and policies.

He said the media was portrayed as "story tellers" and that communications
had already been proven as a powerful tool for global environment preservation.

"Mass media broadcasters have strong skills to touch people's lives by
educating them, so as the people will do something on how to preserve climate
change," Dr Lee explained.

He said that over 70 percent of environment disasters in the world such as
flooding, drought, avian flu disease and dry spells were caused or exacerbated
by changing climate conditions and unprecedented pressures on the planet's land,
waters and ocean, forests and other natural resources.

He suggested that journalists worked with scientists to keep up to date on
the latest developments, understand the significance of research findings and
identify the information most relevant to people's everyday lives.


"Networking frameworks, where the media can meet and interact with climate
scientists, should be put in place. More training programmes are needed to
instruct journalists in climate reporting based on accuracy and objectiveness of
the scientific findings," he added.

He said that with a better understanding of the climate, the media could
help millions of people to improve the environment.
-- BERNAMA