Journalists urged to report on effects of environmental disasters

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Environmental journalists in the country have been urged to report more on environmental issues in order to inform people about devastating effects of environmental degradation.

This was said during a two day training for media practitioners on disaster risk management and early warnings information.

President for the Association for Environmental Journalists Matthews Malata said there is a need for scribes to start writing stories that satisfies readers not just to fulfill their mandates.

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Malata: We need to report more.

“As environmental journalists we need to report more on environmental issues in order to inform our audience on disaster risk management and early warnings information therefore we would help to reduce the devastating effects of disasters,” said Malata.

He added that though there are limited resources in media houses, partnerships and coordination can help to reduce the challenges faced in developing disaster related stories.

Malata further said that environmental stories have also the ability to make headlines rather than thinking that only political stories would do so.

According to him, environmental journalist can help to bridge the gap between people and scientists as well as other stakeholders on issues of disaster.

Commenting on the same, principal mitigation officer for the Department of Disaster risk Management Affairs (DODMA) Veronica Mhango said such trainings for environmental journalists are important as they help the media practitioners to understand information and report accurately.