Reporting the Environment, October 2011 - overview

October 2011, Transitions organized three workshops for Russian journalists, civil society activists, and citizen journalists on reporting environmental issues. The workshops in Novosibirsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were attended by 50 participants, who learned from, among others, Mark Schapiro, a leading U.S. writer on the environment and the author of Exposed: Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power. With his background in investigating environmental causes (he is senior correspondent at the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco), Mark provided perspectives rarely heard during typical environmental workshops. Expressing a common view, ECOM's Alexander Karpov, one of the participants, described the training as “a gasp of a fresh air” (ECOM, the St Petersburg Society of Naturalists, works to develop public participation in Russia and defend citizens’ environmental rights).

The workshops were held as part of “Giving Voice to Environmental Causes,” a project Transitions has been implementing since early 2011 that is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Institute. The project features training and networking opportunities for journalists and civil society activists in Russia as well as a website dedicated to reporting on the environment in Russia. The website, ecoreporter.ru, was launched in August with a view to building a community of professional as well as citizen journalists covering under-reported environmental issues throughout the country. According to the editor, Olga Zakharova, the website also offers an opportunity to professional journalists to publish on topics passed over by the federal or regional state media for political reasons.

Photos can be seen here.