Mr. Roland Affail Monney, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has urged media houses to revitalize their environmental desks in their various media houses and encourage specialization on environmental reporting saying that “capacity is better placed for qualitative improvement in environmental reporting”. Mr. Monney said this during a signing of an MOU between the Ghana Journalists Association and the Environmental Protection Agency to enhance environmental reporting in the country.
EPA, GJA Sign Pact
The management of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the weekend signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ghana Journalists Association to enhance environmental reporting in the country. As part of the MOU, the EPA shall be the sponsor of the environmental reporting category of the annual GJA Award scheme.
Mr John Pwamang, the Acting Executive Director of EPA, represented the EPA while MR. Roland Afful Monney, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association also represented GJA to sign the MOU.
As part of the MOU, EPA would also be training about 20 student journalists from the Ghana Institute of Journalism each year on environmental issues in the country and would create an open week for journalists each year to see at first hand their activities in terms of implementation and the agency’s enforcement activities.
Speaking after the signing of the MOU, Mr Affail Monney, the GJA President, commended the Management of EPA for the support to sponsor the Best Environment Journalist Award.
He said as journalists “we have a great responsibility to ensure that the environment is protected and safeguarded” adding that issues of the environment needed to be brought to the front rows of the discussions to ensure an enhanced awareness creation effort.
The GJA President admitted that there were competing demands for state resources and there was the tendency for other demands like the ‘One Village One Dam’, ‘One Village One Factory, Free Senior High School and roads among others and so there is the tendency to relegate the issues of the environment to the background but still called on the journalists to do their part in protecting the environment.
Mr. Afful Monney said to help protect the environment, the GJA has initiated a project on sanitation governance in partnership with the government, private sector and the media.
The Association alone, he said, could not do it and called on the media houses to support the 24 months campaign to protect the environment.
He called on journalists and media houses to use their power and influence to make the right impact on the environment.
On his part, Mr Pwamang said over the years, the environmental issues did not have much attention in the media adding that this was worrying. He said issues like pollution of the water bodies, forest depletion, waste management and plastic management among others, did not get enough coverage in the media hence the decision by the EPA to get closer to the media.
He said currently, the Agency has staffing challenges and expressed the hope that the situation would improve, adding that they needed to partner with the media in the effort to create more awareness on the protection of the environment.
Training
The EPA after the signing of the MOU held a day’s training for selected editors, producers, presenters and other media personnel.
The training follows a similar one that was held last week for reporters who have interest in environmental reporting.
Like the previous training, the EPA Editors/Producers training was held under the theme: “Demystifying Environmental Issues: The Role of the Media Editors.”
The participants were taken through various topics like Hazardous Waste Management, Environmental Quality Standards, Mining, Pesticides Management, Ozone, Climate Change, Natural Resources and Tree Felling and EPA Acts.
Source: Eveningmailgh.com
