Media professionals were urged to raise awareness and advocate issues concerning the environment and to highlight issues through investigative journalism.
The comment was made by Environment Ministry permanent secretary Joshua Wycliffe while opening the Fiji Media Association and Internews’ Earth Journalism Network Training of Trainers Workshop on Environmental Reporting in Nadi yesterday.
Mr Wycliffe said the media was one of the most important platforms for raising awareness and educating the public on environment issues.
“As journalists, you can work on the creation of awareness, second is advocacy and compliance as well,” he said.
“When you work on that, you can work in partnership with a government agency. One of those things that are very badly needed in Fiji is awareness when it comes to the environment.
“There are people who are throwing litter on the road and engaged in irresponsible behaviour.
“Educating them is important.” He said there was also a need for more investigative journalism which could be more valuable through a partnership with government stakeholders.
Fiji Media Association general secretary Stanley Simpson said the local journalism fraternity welcomed Mr Wycliffe’s partnership suggestion.
“In the past, our colleagues have expressed their frustration over getting a response from the Environment Department,” Simpson said.
“We are trying to develop story ideas and we talk about working together which is also very important.”
The objective of the week-long workshop was to increase the capacity of local media to cover environmental issues, including climate change and natural resource management, and to transfer skills and knowledge to media outlets for the delivery of similar training to their journalists.
