The journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific has won a US$20,000 (F$42,617) grant in a boost environmental reporting in the Pacific.
The programme was one of 14 recipients of the competitive Internews/Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Asia-Pacific and Bay
of Bengal media grants for 2019.
The EJN sees the grant programme as an opportunity for media, civil society organisations and academic institutions throughout Asia-Pacific to think critically and creatively about
how to build local resources for reporting climate change, natural resource management and the environment.
The winners were selected from 70 applications based on two rounds of reviews. USP Journalism was the only grantee from
the Pacific.
Internews EJN Asia-Pacific project director Sim Kok Eng Amy said the agency were glad to partner with USP Journalism to nurture
future journalists in the Pacific and equip them with the skills and knowledge to report on climate change.
“I hope that, through this project, the young journalists will develop a passion for environmental reporting, and be
inspired to report on the lives of those people most affected by climate change and their resilience in tackling climate
change,” Amy said.
USP Journalism, which comes under the School of Language, Arts and Media (SLAM), started in 1988, with more than 200
graduates serving the Pacific and beyond in various media and communication roles.
Won awards
The programme has won a number of national and regional awards for environmental reporting, including the 2010 Vision
Pasifika Climate Change Media Awards by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
The EJN/USP Journalism project is titled, Adapting to and mitigating effects of climate change and island sea level rise. It will involve journalism students conducting climate change reporting in the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands.
Other grantees will undertake projects that include:
• + Strengthening Thai journalists’ ability to cover transboundary environmental issues in neighbouring countries
and at multi-stakeholder forums.
• + Providing story grants for journalists to investigate the impacts of climate change on coffee cultivation in
Indonesia.
• + Establishing an online platform to allow for information exchanges and collaboration between local
journalists, farmers, youth and women’s unions in the Mekong Delta.