The two-day course led by a German expert is taking place in the newly-established Media Information Centre on Environment in Tashkent, run by the non-governmental organization EkoMaktab.

“Throughout the past two years, we have been working together with journalists from different media outlets to improve coverage of environmental protection and conservation issues,” said Jens Nytoft Rasmussen, Senior Project Officer at the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan. “We have seen increased interest on the part of the media in these issues, and I hope that this training course will inspire its participants to continue working on these vital topics and help them gain new skills.”

Participants of the interactive course will produce articles based on an imaginary scenario involving a typical environment-and-development dilemma; they will need to analyse all aspects of the problem, including financial interests, employment matters, nature conservation considerations and local public health threats. The roles of the various stakeholders, including scientists and relevant authorities, will be closely discussed.

The training event is being held by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan together with the NGO EkoMaktab and the State Committee for Nature Protection.