‘States must support, protect climate and environmental journalism’
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IPI reiterates its call on the international community to increase support for and protection of climate and environmental journalists.
Climate and environmental journalism has never been more important in the face of the alarming state of the future of the planet – and yet covering these critical topics has never been more dangerous.
As we celebrate World Environment Day this week, the IPI global network urges the international community to bolster support and protections for journalists to ensure robust, independent news reporting and access to information on the environmental and the climate crisis that is threatening the health, prosperity, and security of societies around the world.
Addressing the global climate and environmental crisis requires accurate, independent journalism that can inform the public debate and shine a light on actions by actors with vested interests that can accelerate environmental destruction, exacerbate social and economic inequities, and endanger the most vulnerable local communities.
But around the world, climate and environmental journalists face multiple, complex threats to their work.
These threats include legal harassment, arrest and detention, physical attacks and intimidation, online harassment, restrictions on freedom of movement, and obstacles to accessing information.
As IPI’s extensive research and monitoring have shown, environmental journalists often cover important stories revealing abuse of power, corruption and human rights violations. In addition to physical and legal harassment and abuse, climate and environmental reporters often are targets of online disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining their investigations and challenging scientific facts related to climate change.
These risks are even higher for journalists from vulnerable groups, as well as for women journalists and journalists working in remote or local regions or in areas with a weak rule of law and ineffective law enforcement
In the last 15 years, more than 700 climate and environmental journalists have experienced attacks, including more than 40 journalists who have been killed with almost no accountability.
This data paints a deadly picture for environmental journalism. The result, unsurprisingly, is increased censorship, self-censorship or information blackouts on salient issues threatening local economies and communities, as well as the security, peace, and health of entire countries and regions.
‘Robust, investigative, and independent climate and environmental journalism is indispensable to addressing the global climate and environmental crisis.’ IPI Executive Director Scott Griffen said.
‘Across the globe, journalists investigating environmental destruction – including the wrongdoing and corruption that often fosters it – and examining solutions to the climate crisis face attacks, abuse, and harassment.
‘These attacks violate the public’s right to know and to take action in support of a sustainable planet.
‘States must do more to ensure that climate and environmental journalists can do their work independently, freely, and safely. This includes ensuring access to information, protecting journalists from legal harassment and SLAPPs, implementing mechanisms to support journalist safety, and ending impunity for crimes against environmental journalists.’
- This article was first published here
