Tanzania: JOWUTA, IFJ hold workshop on climate change reporting

The Journalists Workers Union of Tanzania (JOWUTA) in collaboration with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) under the Union to Union (UTU) Project 2022, held a two- day workshop on climate change reporting from 20 – 21 October in Dar es Salam, Tanzania.

The workshop brought together 20 journalists from various media outlets in the country, including radio, television, community radio stations, newspapers and online media.

The Secretary General of JOWUTA, Suleiman Msuya, in his welcome address, said that human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of millions of people in Tanzania, despite efforts to reduce the risks. He emphasised that climate change is a global challenge that requires local solutions and calls on the Government of Tanzania to take urgent action in dealing with increasing risks of people living in low lying coastal areas. “I have no doubt that this workshop will empower the participants to be able to report more effectively on climate change”.

The Administrative and Finance Officer of the IFJ Africa Office, Mrs; Sokhna Dia Coly, in her solidarity statement said that while in other parts of the world there has been tremendous efforts in reporting climate change, the African media on the other hand, has seriously under reported the issues of climate change, despite the colossal damage that the effects of climate change have on the continent most especially in the agricultural sector.  She added that a significant number of African journalists still do not have sufficient knowledge on the concept of climate change and hence give more prominence in their reporting to “natural disasters” instead of relating these to climate change. Secondly, our surveys in Kenya, Cameroun, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso on “How the Media reports on Climate Change” revealed that there is a fear factor among a large number of journalists to venture into climate change reporting mainly because of the scientific concepts associated with climate change. Thus, the IFJ has deemed it necessary to continue to build the capacities of journalists in climate change reporting.

The two- day workshop dilated on various topics notably the major climate change challenges confronting Tanzania; Causes and consequences of climate change in Tanzania; the role of the media in the fight against climate change in Tanzania; gender dimension of climate change and climate change mitigation and adaptation in Tanzania.

 

 

 

For more Information, please contact the IFJ - Africa Office

1st Floor, Maison de la Presse, 5 Rue X Corniche, Medina,

BP 64257, Dakar, Senegal

Tel: +221- 33 867 95 86/87; Fax: +221- 33 827 02