Regional Programs: Training
Child Rights .
Public Health (in particular HIV/AIDS) . Environment
. Gender and Social Justice . Archive
Regional Training Courses
6. St. Lucia, November 1990
Process (structures for information and media policies) of environmental
reporting in St. Lucia.
Length 2 days.
Target Group
Mainly journalists from TV, radio and print and a few NGOs.
Objectives
To sensitize the national media and NGOs to the need for more effective
reporting on the environment.
To develop closer links between these two groups.
To identify sources of and for relevant information.
Context
CCA and Panos collaboration, following the January 1990 seminar.
Participants
Representatives from 11 NGOs, 8 media (from radio and print), and
1 government agency, and 3 resource people. Female/ Male Ratio:
N/A
Working Methodology and Activities
This weekend seminar was presented in four parts: three discussion
sessions in plenary, plus a field trip to a nearby nature reserve.
There were no small group or working sessions.
Activities: On first day discussion sessions on: Non-traditional
Methods of Information Dissemination (creole media and popular theatre);
and Networking and Contacts (locating, retrieving and disseminating
information on the environment). Activities on second day were cancelled
due to lack of participation.
Documentation Used
Paper with feature address by Yves Renard.
Results
Second day turned out to be a major disappointment because there
was almost no participation.
Closer links were created between media and NGOs.
The NGO presentation was highly informative for media: it provided
a good list of national sources. Additionally, the plenary discussion
uncovered more.
Evaluation by Participants
The evaluation questionnaires were sent to the Saturday participants,
but Panos never received any answer.
Due to the lack of attendance on the second day, Panos could not
realistically achieve all the objectives as stated. However, a good
start was made in sensitizing both sides to each other's work situations
and constraints when reporting on the environment.
Lessons Learned and Recommendations
The biggest lesson was not to plan seminars on the weekend (or at
least not to include a Sunday with national events).
6. Castries, St. Lucia, 10-11 November 1990. SLMWA/Panos/CCA
National Workshop on "Environmental Issues, Structures
for Information and Media policies".
This national seminar followed a recommendation of
the January 1990 regional seminar of CCA, CARIMAC and
Panos. The seminar was held to improve reporting on
environmental issues by bringing the media and the environmental
community together. It was intended to include media
personnel, professionals in government departments that
make decisions affecting the environment, NGOs and community
groups involved or interested in environmental issues,
etc.
The St. Lucia Media Workers Association (SLMWA) was
the local organizer of the seminar. Participants were
invited from all local media houses, as well as from
relevant governmental departments and NGOs. Approximately
a third of the invitees turned up for the first day,
which got off to a lively start with a feature address
by Yves Renard of CANARI.
The first discussion centered on non-traditional methods
of information dissemination, in this case, the creole
media and popular theater. As there is a strong cultural
revival effort in St. Lucia, supported by the Folk Research
Centre, a deep discussion developed on the merits of,
and drawbacks to, information in creole. The second
discussion, on locating, retrieving and disseminating
information on the environment, was highly informative.
The third discussion was to be held on Sunday, and
was to focus on the role of media in covering environmental
issues, in particular regarding the featuring of local
issues. Subsequently a field trip was planned together
with the St. Lucia National Trust, to the Pigeon Island
Nature Reserve in order to "rediscover St. Lucia
with new eyes". However, the workshop programme
had to compete with a Veteran's Day parade in the morning
and a championship soccer game against Aruba in the
afternoon. There were only a few participants.
At the time of planning the seminar and deciding on
a date, the St. Lucia partners were not aware of this
conflict with local events. Additionally, there were
no follow-up calls to the invitations that SLMWA sent
out, as the local organizers have full-time jobs and
therefore lack time during work days to make follow-up
calls.
However, the seminar opened the way for follow-up activities.
In St. Lucia's annual journalism competition, there
were more entries in the environment category than any
other (including sports and politics) for the first
time in the history of the competition. And when the
SLMWA hosted its annual national media awards ceremony
in February 1991, several prizes went to journalists
for articles on environmental issues. Additionally,
the Journalist of the Year 1990, David Vitalis, participated
in both the Jamaica and St. Lucia seminars of Panos
and CCA.
Another positive result has been a notable increase
in quantity and quality of environmental reporting.
Better prepared media practitioners elevated the handling
of the controversial issue of the Piton mountains, and
issue which brought a lot of discussion into St. Lucia
and it increased environmental awareness tremendously.
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