Newspaper salesman in Baku. Photo: Jan Dahmann

While the eyes of the world are on the current UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, climate change is still a new subject for media in Azerbaijan. An IMS-run workshop on climate change journalism in Baku sought to change this

By Jan Dahlmann, journalist

When you live in difficult conditions in a country with heavy and very real environmental problems it would seem natural to focus on this as a journalist rather than on abstract problems of the future and those of other countries. The severe air pollution in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, is an example of a real problem so overwhelming that it almost distracts you from thinking about anything else. Climate change for instance can seem of minor importance if you can hardly breathe in the summer. The air in Baku reeks.

Climate change a non-issue

I had been warned before going to Azerbaijan to run a workshop on climate change journalism in November 2009, that environmental topics like climate change was not high on the media agenda. Among journalists there are few who try to specialise in environmental issues, energy production and climate change, which is not an issue of concern to many people in Azerbaijan. Or something which is discussed widely. The general public simply does not know about climate change. It is a non-issue.

On the basis of this, my challenge was to make climate change an issue in the media, and raise awareness about climate change amongst the journalists participating in the workshop about climate change.

Challenges

There were eleven participants, some of them reporters, some bloggers, some in between. Apart from one reporter, all participants were under the age of 30 and many in their early twenties. One of the many challenges facing journalists in Azerbaijan today is the restrictied access to the Internet as well as the generally poor English language skills which is an added obstacle to accessing information from outside Azerbaijan on climate  change and many other issues. For this reason,  many of the participants were not in the habit of using the internet as a medium to research stories.

With unlimited access to the internet and good English language skills it would be possible to follow the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen from Azerbaijan. But without this  – forget it.

Putting climate change on the media agenda

The workshop included a number of local scientific and political experts as well as an intense public debate which helped to engage the participants further in climate change issues and guide them on how to report on them.

The workshop itself was the subject of attention from Azerbaijani State television, radio and one newspaper, all of which ran a story on our climate workshop and the global challenges of the human-induced greenhouse effect. I was the object of several interviews which is interesting given that there were also local experts available.

Will the interest last?

The workshop definitely raised awareness about climate change in the media in Baku, but will it last?

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 the biggest daily paper in Azerbaijan had a daily circulation of 500,000 copies. Today. the biggest daily newspaper is down to a circulation of only 13,000 copies in a country of 9 million people, thus illustrating the direction in which print media i moving.

Public debates in media without some type of state intervention are almost non-existent and ‘letters to the editor’ are virtually unknown. And when it comes to the human- induced greenhouse effect, there is still a serious need for an eye opener.