Four journalists from Urdu, English and Pushto language-media receive awards for excellence in climate reporting after field reporting boot camps in Swat and Rahim Yar Khan
Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir) The Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi conferred awards upon four journalists for their outstanding contributions to the field of climate reporting at the ‘Climate Reporting Awards’. This measure is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The Awards, held for the first time, were organized to highlight and promote journalistic expertise in the areas of environment and climate change after 24 journalists across the country attended five-day Green Media Initiative boot camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and South Punjab.
Dr. Rüdiger Lotz, Consul General, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, gave welcome remarks at the event. He stated, “To the journalists we honor today, my heartfelt congratulations and deepest gratitude. I encourage you to continue your invaluable contributions to the climate change discourse, knowing your voices enable climate action. Your stories have not just informed the public, they have demonstrably made a difference.”
The awards were conferred to four journalists – two from each province – for news stories written or produced after the successful completion of the Swat boot camp in November and the Rahim Yar Khan boot camp in December.
The winners and runners-up are as follows:
Rahim Yar Khan
Winner: Irfan Ulhaq, Correspondent, Dawn Media Group
Story title: Salinity control plan reclaims 1.3 acres farmland
Runner-up: Mahjabeen Abid, Producer/ Anchor, PTV National Multan
Story title: Air pollution: A big reason of complications during pregnancy
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Winner: Arif Ahmad, Reporter, Zama Swat
Story title: An entire village in Swat flooded due to climate change
Runner-up: Laiba Hussan, Reporter, Aaj News
Story title: Solar energy’s unintended impact: Peshawar’s silent drought crisis
Winners and runners-up were selected by two senior journalists from a total of 20 entries from the alumni of Green Media Initiative boot camps. The jury included Shahzeb Jillani, Senior Journalist and Host of Zara Hut Kay at Dawn News and Afia Salam, Freelance Journalist.
During the occasion, a resource book titled ‘Pakistan: On the Frontline of Climate Change’ authored by Rina Saeed Khan and edited by Farahnaz Zahidi was launched. The book provides journalists with an overview of the impact, governance and legal structures, and tips to improve climate change journalism in an easy-to-understand format.
Amber Rahim Shamsi, Director CEJ, highlighted the Centre’s efforts for providing opportunities to journalists to learn climate reporting on ground: “CEJ-IBA has been at the forefront of capacity-building for stimulating climate journalism”.
“We are honored to partner with the like-minded GIZ, which shares our vision for high quality and high impact reporting,” she said.
In his keynote speech, Ahmad Shabbar, Founder and CEO, GarbageCan, emphasized the ‘corrective mechanism’ of nature and stated, “If something in Nature goes wrong, it corrects itself. I am of the firm belief that you and I are a part of that corrective mechanism. We have been made to realize that we need nature or a certain climate to survive. And there is something very wrong going on. Now it is for us to decide how we want to live. And for the media to tell it as it is so that people can decide for themselves.”
