community journalism

From COP17 to Rio + 20 for South African community media journalists: Where is the voice of women in Climate change reporting?

From COP17 to Rio + 20 for South African community media journalists: Where is the voice of women in Climate change reporting?
Published date: 
26 Mar 2012

Women’sNet and The Media Development & Diversity Agency are proud to present a meerting we are calling ‘The Johannesburg Agreement’, the second phase of a series of workshops to train women journalists from community media (Radio and TV) in the practice of online and mobile citizen journalism in the wake of the COP17 conference and the Climate Change phenomena. The first phase was held in Durban between 28 November and 9 December 2011, a series of activities were facilitated around the COP17 conference, with the aim of empowering women to produce information that offers an alternative to mainstream media coverage. Female journalists working for registered community and small commercial radio stations and television have been invited to participate in The Johannesburg Agreement.

The initiative was developed following the women and media and environment conference organised by the department of environmental affairs in August of 2011 to engage community media with regards to COP17. This conference came twelve years after the adoption of the Kyoto protocol, and was seen as critical milestone to getting parties to sign an agreement that will see lowering of carbon emissions in the world. Our interest as a collective was on telling the story of how climate change affects OUR communities, and in particular women who work on the land and depend on it for their families’ livelihood.

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