#EnvironmentMatters
Environmental Media between Specialization and Commitment
Dr. Habib Maalouf started the workshop with talking about the importance of an environmental media presence and the importance of establishing a strategic relationship between the Ministry of Environment and media professionals. He said: "With the evolution of environmental problems -in Lebanon and in the world- which threaten the quality of life, as environmental issues affect all aspects of life and have philosophical and scientific backgrounds, the media processions had to give prominence for these problems and allocate media professionals to be able to address these environmental issues.”
Representative of HSS in Lebanon, Mr. Tony Ghorayeb mentioned that "the Hanns Seidel Foundation works in 60 countries around the world, in the Service of Democracy, Peace and Development." He also explained that "the Foundation has always been interested in such training workshops that help media professionals to be able to approach the environment and recognize some problems and prepare reports related them."
MoE
During the speech of M.O.E. Nasser Yassin, he hoped that "this type of workshops in the ministry would become a constant tradition that would inform the specialized media about the scientific developments and the environmental cases -in accordance with the principle of the right of access to information- and involve the media in public opinion so that the recipient becomes a partner in the decision and in bearing the responsibility for its implementation and commitment."
He added that "this workshop emphasizes the importance of environmental media specialization and the importance of scrutinizing concepts, studies and options and facilitating their access to people, without distortion, exaggeration or omission, in addition to the importance of the media professionals being committed and of responsibility in representing the role of the observer and the partner and not just a news reporter."
MoE
Three seminars were held, during which the workshop coordinator presented three axes, the first axis addressed the answer to the questions "Why is the environment an existential issue? And what are the most critical environmental issues in our contemporary world?".
The second axis answered the question "Is the environmental media committed or neutral? What does specialization in environmental media mean?". And the third axis dealt with how to scrutinize information and choose topics for writing.
The topics included a discussion with the participants on many environmental issues such as solid waste and landfills management, climate change, air pollution caused by the transport sector, environmental degradation, ways to prevent fires, and protecting biodiversity, forests and natural reserves.