Srinagar, Mar 14: To equip media students and scholars with the necessary knowledge on how to cover and report climate change and disasters more accurately and responsibly, Media Education Research Centre (MERC), Kashmir University, Thursday, inaugurated a two-day training workshop here.
Noted journalist, award-winning researcher and writer, Athar Parvaiz, the resource person for the training programme, delved into the history of climate change. He discussed the formation of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and its guidelines.
Athar Parvaiz emphasised the need to substantiate claims with scientific evidence while underlining the significance of understanding how to start reporting on climate change.
“You need to first do the ground research, and then pursue the story,” he added.
“This workshop has a good prominence in current times as climate change is one of the prominent threat that the whole world is facing and has opened many horizons for the aspiring environment journalists like me” says Shahid Khair Dar, a media student.
Outlining the objectives of the training programme, Head MERC, Prof Sabeha Mufti, highlighted the works of Athar Parvaiz, an alumnus of the Centre, who is a household name in developmental reporting.
She said that climate change is a real thing and that reporting such issues the way it should be is the need of the hour.
“Nowadays, we see disasters taking place in the form of wars,” she noted.
Workshop Coordinator, Prof Malik Zahra, said: “The workshop aims at capacity building among our students so that tomorrow they can speak and write about sensitive issues of climate change and disasters which is a global crisis impacting communities worldwide.”
Faculty at the Centre, Dr Rashid Maqbool, emphasised Athar’s contribution to environmental journalism and disaster reporting in the Himalayan region.
“His reporting and research focuses on crucial issues such as food security, water crisis and agricultural challenges in the Himalayan region,” Dr Rashid said, adding that young storytellers should explore new and challenging areas of developmental reporting.
MERC faculty, Prof Aaliya Ahmed, Prof Syeda Afshana, Dr Afsana Rashid, Dr Irfan Hashim and Dr Adil Bakshi, besides scholars and students attended the function.
