By:Mohamed M. Sesay
The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has on Wednesday the 6th of June 2022, commenced a two-day training for journalists on climate
change and the ramifications around climate change and global warming.
Making his opening address at the Raddison Blu Hotel, the Technical Partnership proprietor for the Catholic Relief Services Dennis Momoh, explained that the purpose of the training was to engage journalists as they believe in the role of the Fourth Estate in terms of effective communications in addressing the climate change. He reiterated that the media has the power to influence changes, which is why they called for such engagement with the media in ensuring that the desired changes in mitigating climate change are enhanced.
Dennis Momoh also reminded us that the Catholic Relief Services has been operating in Sierra Leone since 1963 and that they are very committed to supporting government efforts in terms of development. As a Caritas of the United States, he said they believe in making sure that their commitment is highly upheld and aligned with their respective duties. He said this is not the first time the Catholic Relief Services has engaged journalists as the Catholic Relief Services has been having sporadic engagement with the media all geared towards promoting development in the country. He reassured me that the Catholic Relief Service will s continue to
provide capacity building for journalists across the country.
Making a statement on behalf of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), the New Financial Secretary for SLAJ Mohamed Konneh commenced his statement by extending profound thanks and appreciation to the Catholic Relief Services for organizing the climate change training for media. Mohamed Konneh disclosed that global climate is a connection of a system of sun, earth and oceans, wind, rain and snow, forests, deserts and savannas, and everything people do.
The new Financial Secretary for SLAJ also described climate change to be in the form of rainfall, coupled with changing temperatures during the year. He furthered that a description of the global climate includes the rising temperature of the Pacific feeds typhoons which blow harder, drop more rain and cause more damage. He also revealed that climate change shifts the global ocean that melts Antarctica ice which slowly makes the sea level rise until New York is under water.
Mohamed Konneh continued that Climate Change occurs due to the systemic connectedness that makes global climate change so important and so complicated. He also intimated that global warming is the slow increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere because an increased amount of the energy (heat) striking the earth from the sun is being trapped in the atmosphere and not radiated out into space.
He affirmed that most media outlets are aware of the increasing focus on climate change and the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders to see relevant issues. According to Shoemaker and Reese, he said the controversy is one of the main variables affecting story choice among news editors, along with human interest, prominence, timeliness, celebrity, and proximity. He also asserted that coverage of climate change had been accused of falling victim to the journalistic norm of personalization. Mohamed Konneh therefore, assured the Catholic Relief Services that SLAJ is very much in support of this type of training because it builds the capacity of media practitioners who are interested in reporting on the environment, especially on climate change.
“We support such training and urged colleague journalists to take the training seriously. Be an environment journalist today and help save the environment tomorrow”, he concluded.
