International Green Pen Awards 2009: celebrating environmental journalism around the world
Rukshan Bandara
promoting environmental journalism in the developing world have just
been honoured
with the International Green Pen Award 2009.
They are among the five latest winners announced by the Asia-Pacific Forum of
Environmental Journalists(APFEJ) a non-profit media organisation headquartered
in Colombo, Sri Lanka.The APFEJ is a network and regional association founded
in 1988, dedicated to promoting education understanding and awareness of the
environment through honest and accurate reporting of local, regional and
international environmental and development issues. It acts as the
head of national
environmental journalist forums(NFEJs) or media organisations of 42 countries
in the Asia Pacific region.The APFEJ ad hoc committee was formed in 1985 at a
regional conference on media and environment in New Delhi, organised by
UN-ESCAP in collaboration with UNEP. Today, APFEJ is the world's oldest and
largest organisation of professional environmental journalists, with networking
contacts of over 12,000 members in nearly 154 countries around the world.
Prof Sharon M. Friedman of USA, Haroldo F Castro of Brazil and Carmen Miranda
of India have been researching, training or otherwise supporting
environmental journalists
in the developing world for over a quarter of a century.
The other two winners, Nanette Woonton of Cook Islands and
Natallia Sliadneva of Belarus,have a distinguished record of being
path-breaking
environmental journalists in their own countries and regions.
International Green Pen Award is presented each year at the annual congress for
journalists who have made a significant contribution in promoting
environmental journalism.
Each winner receives a trophy and an award certificate
This year's awards will be presented during the 18th APFEJ World
Congress of Environmental
Journalists to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 19 21 October 2009.
It is organised by the
Asia-Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists (APFEJ) in partnership with
the Commonwealth Environmental Journalists Association (CEJA),
Sri Lanka Environmental Journalists Forum(SLEJF) and a number of other
media and
development organisations. Nearly 100 environmental journalists from
30 countries
will participate in the congress on the theme 'Educate to end Climate Poverty'.
"The International Green Pen Awards honour those who have made great
contributions to
environmental media at the country and regional levels," says Dharman
Wickremaratne,
director of Asia-Pacific Forum of Environmental
Journalists(APFEJ)."All our winners have
dedicated their illustrious careers to journalism on behalf of the environment."
"I am delighted to receive this award," says Dr Sharon M. Friedman,
Professor and
Director of the Science and Environmental Writing Program in the
Department of Journalism and
Communication at Lehigh University, in Pennsylvania, USA.
"Environmental journalism in Asia
has advanced in leaps and bounds since Kenneth Friedman and I first
engaged the region in the 1980s."
Another winner, Haroldo Castro, said: "People will only support
conservation if they first
understand why we want to protect a particular area or species. This
is why environmental
communication by journalists, film makers and educators is
tremendously important.
I appreciate this award, recognising over three decades of my work
around the world."
International Green Pen Award, established in 1998, recognizes
leadership of individuals
in the field of environmental journalism - people who help, inspire
and support others in the field.
Nominees can be full-time or freelance journalists based anywhere in
the world, and working in
any form of print, broadcast or online media. They may be employed by
media organisations,
the United Nations, government agencies or non-governmental
organisations (NGOs).
Here are brief profiles of this year's winners (more information is
available on the
website of the http://www.environmentaljournalists.org Dr Sharon Friedman is
one of the world's leading researchers and teachers on science and
environmental communication. She studies how scientific,
environmental, technological and
health issues are communicated to the public, and has conducted research on
risk communication and on mass media coverage of the Three Mile Island
and Chernobyl
nuclear accidents among other hazards. In 1988, she co-authored with
Kenneth A. Friedman the pioneering publication 'Reporting on the Environment:
A Handbook for Journalists', published by the UN Economic and Social
Commission for
Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Asian-Pacific Forum of
Environmental Journalists
Translated into 19 languages, the book inspired a generation of environmental
journalists across the Asia Pacific region. Read more at:
http://www.environmentaljournalists.org/Prof_Sharon_Friedman_of_USA.htm
Haroldo Castro has 30 years of professional experience as an
international communications
strategist, filmmaker and television producer, photojournalist, and
conservationist.
He worked at Conservation International (CI) from 1991 to 2006. In
1999, he created a
contest for environmental journalists, the “Biodiversity Reporting Award”
(www.biodiversityreporting.org) to acknowledge the efforts of media
professionals in
developing countries. Before joining CI, Haroldo Castro worked in
Washington, DC,
as a correspondent for a Brazilian weekly magazine and
as an independent television producer. Read more at:
http://www.environmentaljournalists.org/Haroldo_Castro_of_Brazil_1.htm
As Director of the Asia Regional programme of the Panos Institute in the 1990s,
Carmen Miranda was responsible for developing and managing a series of
training programmes
and fellowships for journalists in South Asia and Indonesia to create awareness
and encourage reporting on environmental issues. The programmes were
also designed to
promote regional exchange of information on the environment, cooperation and
understanding and to identify common regional environmental concerns
such as water,
which was covered extensively and from different perspectives across
the region through
Panos media fellowships. Before and after her stint with Panos, Carmen has a
varied career as writer, illustrator, film maker and campaigner on a range of
environmental and social issues in her native India as well as in
other parts of Asia,
Africa and Europe. Read more at:
http://www.environmentaljournalists.org/Carmen_Miranda_of_India.htm
Nanette Woonton was the News Director for television news with Cook Islands
Television in the Cook Islands, where she also worked in producing
documentaries,
advertisements, radio news and print news. In 2007, Woonton moved to Samoa
to work with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment
Programme (SPREP)
as the Associate Media and Publications Officer. She has been instrumental in a
strong climate change media outreach for the Pacific islands. In 2008,
she sourced funding for a capacity building for climate change
reporting project,
which brought Pacific islands reporters together to undergo training with
specialists in climate and other environment fields. Read more at:
http://www.environmentaljournalists.org/Nanette_Woonton_of_Cook_Islands.htm
Natallia Sliadneva of Belarus is both a journalist and environmental educator.
She is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the ecological magazines 'The
World of Animals' and '
Ecologist and Me'. Starting her journalistic career in 1997, she has
worked closely
with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Education,
Ministry of Culture as well as the Training-methodical Association of Higher
Educational Institutions in Belarus. Read more at:
http://www.environmentaljournalists.org/Natallia_Sliadneva_of_Belarus.htm
Background:
The APFEJ and International Green Pen Foundation (IGPF) launched the
International Green Pen Awards in 1998. Since then dozens of
environmental journalists
and communicators from all over the world have been honoured with this
coveted award.
Among the past winners are Nepal forum founder secretary Aditya Man
Shrestha of Nepal,
IFEJ co- FounderValentin Thurn of Germany,SEJ founder president Prof Jim Detjen
of USA, Nina Ratulele of Fiji, Manuel Satorre of The Philippines and
Yang Mao of China.
Nominations can be made by March 30 each year, and must include the
nominee's name, contact details, examples of their work and reasons for the
nominations. The 2010 awards are to be presented on 5 June 2010 at a
special ceremony at the 19th World congress of Environmental Journalists'
For further information please visit:
http://www.environmentaljournalists.org/green_pen.html
For more information please contact:
Dharman Wickremaratne
Director
Asia-Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists(APFEJ)
C/o Sri Lanka Lanka Environmental Journalists Forum(SLEJF)
PO Box 26
434/3 Sri Jayawardenapura
Sri Lanka.
E-mail: <ejourn...@gmail.com> ,<ejourn...@sltnet.lk>
http://www.environmentaljournalists.org