MDI at UNESCO 2024 World Press Freedom Day

On 4 May, 2024 MDI is inviting you to join - online and in person – from 3.30-4.30PM (UTC-3) our panel at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the Environmental Crisis” 

The issue of climate change has received varying levels of attention from the media over the years, but the impact on Indigenous communities and their role in mitigation has been under-represented. Local communities and marginalised groups are often the first to experience the impacts of environmental changes and are crucial stakeholders in climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. 

MDI’s panel entitled "Rewriting climate change narratives: artistic approaches to inclusive storytelling" at UNESCO World Press Freedom will explore innovative and artistic approaches to covering climate change while addressing the importance of diverse perspectives from vulnerable and marginalised groups in shaping the narrative.   

Our panelists will talk about some of the key initiatives they have been involved in,  exploring how the use of different forms of storytelling can bring climate change stories to new audiences. 

To register, please visit UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Conference and follow the instructions at the bottom of the homepage.

Media and marginalised communities 

We will also explore how media developers can build programmes that connect journalists with marginalised communities and partner with artists and other types of practitioners to tell stories that: 

  1. Deeply understand how various communities are uniquely impacted by and contribute to climate change 
  2. Explore the interconnected nature of climate change with issues such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, and Indigenous rights, and examine how these intersections shape climate narratives 
  3. Discuss strategies for journalists to actively involve communities in the storytelling process, fostering a two-way dialogue and ensuring that the narratives authentically reflect the experiences and concerns of those affected 
  4. Address ethical challenges in climate reporting, including potential biases and misrepresentation, and guidance on how to navigate these challenges with integrity 

Moderator:  

Milica Pesic, Executive Director at Media Diversity Institute, UK [CONFIRMED] 

Milica Pesic is the Executive Director of Media Diversity Institute (MDI). She has been working in Diversity and the Media field for more than 20 years designing and supervising multi-national, multi-annual programmes in Europe, NIS, MENA, South Asia, the Sahel, Sub-Sahara, West Africa, China and Cuba. She has co-designed an MA Course in Diversity and the Media which is jointly run by MDI and the University of Westminster. A Journalist by profession, she has reported for the BBC, Radio Free Europe, the Times HES, TV Serbia, and other media. She holds an MA in International Journalism from City University, London. Prior to MDI, she worked for New York University, the IFJ (Brussels), and the Alternative Information Network (Paris). MDI has branches in the US, Western Balkans, Belgium and South Caucasus. 

milica.pesic@media-diversity.org 

Our panellists  

Participant 1:  

Karla Mendes, an investigative and feature reporter for Mongabay, Brazil. [CONFIRMED] 

Karla Mendes is an award-winning journalist who has been working as a correspondent for international outlets since 2015, and since 2017, she has specialized in covering environmental and land issues. She is a fellow of the Pulitzer Center's Rainforest Investigations Network. Throughout her career, Karla has won several national and international awards, among them the SEAL Journalism Environmental Award with distinction for her “powerful work covering the continued encroachment of global corporations into Indigenous Amazon lands”. In 2022, she won second place in the Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for outstanding investigative reporting that unveiled how “sustainable” palm oil triggered deforestation and water contamination in Brazil’s Amazon, affecting Indigenous people and traditional communities.  

Participant 2:  

Boris van Westering, Climate Journalism Development Expert, Netherlands [To be confirmed] 

Boris van Westering is an independent climate development specialist (Building Bridges Advies). Boris is committed to fixing the information ecosystem around climate change and supports programming efforts which connect media /journalism, civil society, academia and the public /private sector. Boris has successfully worked on media / journalism projects with Clingendael Institute, the Planetary Security Initiative and the Stanley Center. Boris participated at the COP27 in Sharm-el Sheikh to advance the importance of independent journalism for increased climate accountability. Boris co-designed the educational project Facts Not Filters for the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and the latest Critical Storytelling course: Reframing Climate Narratives. 

Participant 3:  

Todd M Henry,  documentarist, filmmaker, New Zealand,  ONLINE [CONFIRMED] 

In his PhD studies, Todd is using photovoice methodology and is looking at human experiences of climate change and climate change-related migration in Tonga. As a photographer, he has been documenting climate change and other social issues around the Pacific for the past seven years. Having seen the effects of climate change across the Pacific, he feels that the adaptations made by Indigenous people through the use of their traditional ecological knowledge need to be celebrated and better understood by Western science. “In the photovoice project, I’ll put cameras into the hands of key individuals to understand how they experience climate change and displacement in Tonga. The photographs will be used to open up discussion points for interviews that will inform the findings. Later, if the participants agree, the photographs will be used to showcase an exhibition that will highlight key issues from the perspective of displaced communities and hopefully inform policy at the government level.” 

Participant 4 

Leshan Sikorei, member of the Masai community in Kenya. [ONLINE, CONFIRMED]. 

Leshan Sikorei represented youth and Indigenous communities at COP27. The Masai, a semi-nomadic ethnic group primarily located in Kenya and Tanzania, have long-standing practices and knowledge related to land management, conservation, and resilience to environmental changes. They face significant challenges from climate change, including droughts, shifting weather patterns, and impacts on their traditional way of life. 

Participant 5 : 

Pedro Cayuqueo, Journalist, environmental activist, writer, Chile [TBC] 

Pedro Cayuqueo comes from the Mapuche indigenous community, which in terms of environment, is one of the groups that are mostly affected by ecological destruction in Chile. He was the founder and director in the city of Temuco of the Azkintuwe  and MapucheTimes newspapers, as well as the host of the Kulmapu program on CNN Chile and VTR. He has been a columnist for the weekly The Clinic, Caras magazine and currently collaborates with the newspapers La Tercera and Austral de Temuco. He is the author of ten books of opinion and investigative journalism on Indigenous issues in Chile and Argentina.

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