* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Journalists train in environmental reporting at the newly-established Myanmar Journalism Institute.
The Myanmar Journalism Institute is not yet a year old, but the three rooms which make up this training centre in the heart of the commercial capital, Yangon, are bubbling and humming with activity.
Our workshop, a partnership between the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF) and the Myanmar office of WWF with funding from Danida and support from WWF's Russell E. Train Education for Nature Foundation, fits between a Training of Trainers course and an internet seminar. Local staff and trainers work with international colleagues and when our workshop tumbles out for breaks there’s always something happening on the other side of the door.
Inside the training room TRF’s local bureau chief Thin Lei Win is watching a lively group of journalists, joined by a couple of local NGO communications staff, debating the relative merits of independent journalism over advocacy reporting, which defends the environment. It’s a debate the group has asked to insert into the workshop agenda and it reflects the energy and enthusiasm generated here for exploring their own ideas about how to report on Myanmar’s challenging natural resources boom.
Switched on by speakers on the workshop topics of environment and corporate social responsibility arranged by WWF, and armed with some new language and approaches, the reporters want to think about how they can best tackle stories on the future for their country’s natural resources, threatened wildlife and relationships with some very demanding neighbours.
They tell their own stories of seeing “hundreds of trucks” making night crossings to China carrying timber, of illegal miners trafficking wildlife, industrial pollution entering their rivers, and how, yes, now that we’ve had almost two hours with one of Myanmar’s top people on climate change, yes, we have noticed changes in extreme weather events. These stories may be developed when six of the group are selected for a six month TRF mentoring project which will hopefully help them sustain momentum when they return to their work routine.
By day three this group of 16 freelancers and staff reporters writing for print, radio and the web has grasped some new jargon and is talking about the details: exploiting Myanmar’s natural capital, valuing bio-diversity, where the scaly and very cute Pangolin sits on the Red List, and how many interviews they’d need to do a more comprehensive story on exactly how Myanmar may or may not benefit from selling power from hydro-electric dams to China and Thailand.
Once the basics are refreshed – ethics, research, leads, structure and attribution – their energy goes into storytelling, and every day the reporters do what they do best. They’re writing stories and experimenting with different styles and different platforms, including social media. But it’s the day trip we’ve planned with WWF which really pulls it together.
Hlawga National Park is just over 20 kms north of the city. The reporters tell us that most of the creatures from the small zoo there have been moved to the new political capital, Naypyidaw, but that this remains a popular escape from the city with its weekend elephant rides and lakeside picnic spots.
We’ve prepared for the day with a session on safety and it proves to be one of the highlights of the training with the journalists demonstrating they’ve seized the new information and intend to use it in future. Enough arrive for the early morning bus with ‘grab bags’ and solid footwear to show that members of this group are better equipped for taking on the increasingly dangerous role of environment journalist.
It takes around two hours to reach Hlawga. The Lake here was an important water source for the city and remains an important bird habitat. We have experts from WWF and Flora and Fauna International to feed the reporters’ constant natural curiosity but within minutes of our arrival, wandering through a museum filled with stuffed local wildlife and photographing the much more lively rhesus monkeys outside, it’s clear the aim of the day has already been met.
This is not just about storytelling, or shining a light on truth. It’s a great day out and a chance to remember that the natural beauty here has been feeding much more than a thirsty city. The journalists who’ve come to learn ‘how to report the environment’ have engaged with nature and they end the workshop reminded that they have a choice about how and what they do with their journalism, and that perhaps finding ways to tell good stories about the environment in Myanmar is one of the most important jobs they could do.
One hope is that they’ll remember a key concept which has occupied a corner of the whiteboard all week, represented with one simple word. It’s the idea that stories which focus on the problems facing Myanmar are important, but there’s a need to also report the options for resolving problems, to cover competing arguments, to explore alternatives tried in other countries and to celebrate success. The word on the whiteboard? ‘Solutions’.
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