ReRep Projects: Search Results

Project Title:
	2.1 Regional Environmental Press Centre

Project runs
	from April, 2001 to December, 2003

Project objectives:

The project seeks to improve media coverage of the region's environment by making information more available to journalists. The project will establish a Regional Environmental Press Centre (REPC) in South Eastern Europe (SEE) with its headquarters in Macedonia. The objectives are:
- to carry out a needs assessment of the challenges facing environmental journalism in SEE;
- to establish and run REPC;
- to establish and run a network of satellite offices of REPC;
- to create and maintain a Web site containing useful information for journalists in SEE;
- to provide a database of expert contacts;
- to produce a twice-monthly tip-sheet for journalists about the SEE environment and NGOs activities; and
- to run an environmental reporting workshop.

Project outcomes:

- increased and better news coverage of environmental problems and the work of NGOs in SEE;
- development of professional, routine channels for informing the SEE public about the environment;
- greater awareness and understanding of environmental problems among journalists;
- improved liaison between the media and environmental NGOs;
- improved contact between journalists and experts;
- greater international awareness of the environmental problems in SEE.

Lead countries:	FYR Macedonia
Beneficiary countries:	All SEE countries Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia FYR Macedonia Romania Serbia and Montenegro Kosovo (territory under interim UN administration)
Project budget:	226,550 in EUR

Donors:

Organization	Contribution	Currency
The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs	226,550	EUR

Contact persons:
Pavel Antonov , Implementing agency - Regional Environmental Center
Jordancho Bajraktarov , Implementing agency - Regional Environmental Center
Vaska Atanassova - Environmental Press Centre

Activities:

Activity	Date	Place
A project committee , <www.repc.net/about/steering.html> was set up consisting of leading environmental media experts, journalists and environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives.	2001 - 2003	Bitola - Ohrid
A needs assessment <http://media.rec.org/environmental_journalism.html> study and an analytical report identified the primary needs of environmental journalists in SEE as: " new and independent information sources; " professional capacity building; and " networking and contacts with other journalists from the region.	2002	Sofia
A Regional Environmental Press Centre <www.repc.net> (REPC) was established, at the Environmental Press Centre of Macedonia. The centre coordinated the network, maintained the environmental journalists' tip-sheet, the expert's database and all other media services..	Since 2002	Skopje, FYR Macedonia
A network of in-country media resource points <www.repc.net> was created in all the eight countries and territories covered by the project. The resource points were hosted by existing non profit organisations with relevant experience and capacity to serve environmental journalists. These were environmental journalists' associations, environmental electronic networks, and environmental NGOs with strong focus on mass media. With support from REC's country offices, the media resource points served local environmental journalists, identified and updated local experts, held trainings and individual support. The resource points supplied local content and information to the project's regional media portal and facilitated regional networking among journalists.	Since 2002	Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia FYR Macedonia Romania Serbia and Montenegro Kosovo (territory under interim UN administration)
The regional portal web site <www.repc.net> "Services for environmental journalists from SEE" was launched at www.repc.net. Apart from the experts media database online and the environmental journalists' tip-sheet, the site contained regular environmental updates from the region. A special section provided useful resources for the work of environmental journalists. A forum feature and a regional on line mailing list allowed for networking and exchange among journalists and country resource points. Local language web pages were maintained by the country resource points.	Since 2002	Skopje - Budapest
The database of environmental experts <http://www.repc.net/databases/media.html> from SEE was produced by the project team, with assistance from REC's Szentendre based database manager. The database was based on REC's environmental media database, and was further updated and adjusted for the SEE journalists' needs. Country resource points researched and supplied new entries for the database, and advised local journalists on its use.	Since 2002	Skopje - Budapest
"SEE Environment Watch" was the title of the tip sheet for journalists <http://www.repc.net/tipsheet/>, distributed by e-mail since October 2002. The tip-sheet was edited in co-operation by the project team and REC's Information Programme editorial team, and distributed jointly to over 200 subscribing journalists.	2002 - 2003	Skopje - Budapest
A regional training workshop for environmental journalists <http://media.rec.org/Ohrid.html> was held in Macedonia, entitled "Environment in the News". The training focused on practical professional skills in environmental story writing. Paul Brown, the environment correspondent for The Guardian, UK, was the leading trainer. Twelve journalists were selected out of several dozen applicants from the SEE and Turkey. s.	2003	Ohrid, FYR Macedonia
The project committee gave positive evaluation to the project's outcomes at a concluding meeting of the project steering committee.	2003	Ohrid, FYR Macedonia

Back to search page

See the project Web page