Use press freedom to save the environment

Today marks World Press Freedom Day. This will be the 30th year the world celebrates this important day.

Just a brief history of the day. World Press Freedom Day emanated from the Windhoek Declaration of UNESCO’s General Conference in Namibia in 1991 that called for journalism and journalists to be honoured for their important but difficult work in society. The United Nations General Assembly picked it up and in 1993 established Press Freedom Day to be observed every year on May 3. The first Press Freedom Day was observed in 1994.

This year’s theme, “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the environmental crisis”, is markedly different from the previous years where the focus has perennially been on the plight of journalists and the obstacles that stand in the way of good journalism. This year it is about what journalists can do and should be doing in the face of the climate crisis facing the world. It is about potential, rather than lamentations.

It is a call to the media to put environmental journalism at the centre of its coverage a lot more than it has done in the past.

The Uganda Media Sector Working Group (UMSWG) is leading our national celebrations that will peak with rich conversations at a conference in Makerere University’s College of Engineering, Design Art and Technology auditorium.

One of the topics for discussion will be a report by civil society organisation, Twaweza, on “Uganda citizens’ opinions and experiences of the climate crisis”. For many years, climate change has more or less been treated as a cliché in much of Africa and Uganda in particular. This report will therefore show whether as a country we have finally woken up to the crisis.

There should be many pickings for journalists here: the perceptions and the factors driving them, issues shaping the climate crisis from our corner of the earth, how deep the crisis is, and possible mitigation.

The other conversation will be on the “Challenges and opportunities in Environmental Journalism in the face of the climate change crisis”. This will be speaking directly to the media, to the journalists whose duty it is to flag issues, hold different players to account and most of all, make the citizens understand why they need to pay attention to the environment and the issues shaping it.

Is the media the magic wand that will change our climate trajectory? Yes and no. Ultimately, policymakers and governments have the wherewithal to save our environment and mitigate the climate crisis. The media’s role is to hold them to account, to signal them to where action is needed, to showcase success here and elsewhere, and to inform citizens about what is going on and their roles in the mess or the solutions.

The starting point for journalists is to educate themselves on environmental and climate issues so they are able to make linkages, detect impact, and argue solutions. An ignorant media/journalist is a workshop for misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information. Neither citizens nor the cause of environmentalism will benefit from half-baked reporting.

The media, especially television, has the unique ability to project graphically the environmental crisis as well as the solutions. We need to use it well at this moment in history.

The media spectrum has widened in the last few years so World Press Freedom Day is not just about mainstream media. It is also about citizen journalists who therefore also have a role to play in this year’s theme.

How should they contribute solutions to the climate crisis? Perhaps nowhere is this best exemplified than in India. Last Wednesday’s Eco-India programme on DW television featured a segment on “Independent weathermen in India” and the “Andhra Pradesh weatherman”. These are weather bloggers who pick information on climate issues from different online sources and project it to their followers in a manner that makes sense.

Citizen journalists – and all citizens – must therefore rise to the occasion and riding on this year’s theme make their voices heard. Indeed many Ugandans have been doing this on social media, showing swamp degradation, improper garbage disposal, deforestation, etc. This is your year to make a difference in the fight to protect the environment and mitigate climate change

Send your feedback/complaints to

[email protected] or

call/text on +256 776 500725.