Going Environmental

Environmental policy issues are still not a priority for the governments in the Balkans. In the local media, systematic and competent reporting on environmental issues and climate change still plays a subordinate role and is usually limited by national and language borders.

Against this background, the Going Environmental project was implemented in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) to support 18 journalists from the region. Together they strengthened their knowledge, acquired new skills, and created new wider professional networks to provide better, engaging environmental and climate reports.

Two workshops took place – one in Ohrid, North Macedonia (September 2022) and one in Kolašin, Montenegro (November 2022). Through a peer-to-peer learning process and with the help of selected trainers the participants had the opportunity to further develop their capacity to deliver cross-border climate and environmental reporting to the public.

Supported online by mentors throughout the project, the journalists worked in groups and produced national and cross-border publications on climate and environmental issues, which have all been published and re-published in national, regional and international outlets.

The project's results were also presented and disseminated further at a high-profile final public event in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina in February 2023, where besides media professionals the discussions involved NGOs, political representatives, activists, and climate policy stakeholders.