Nine climate‑change journalism fellows have been urged to become the voice of climate reporting in West Africa. The announcement came during the closing ceremony of the first cohort of the Climate Change Journalism Fellowship, organized by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The fellows—journalists from Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea and Togo—completed five months of training on covering and reporting climate change. The programme, titled “Confronting the Climate Change Crises in West Africa through Critical Journalism,” concluded on Friday in Accra, Ghana.
MFWA’s Director of Advocacy and Research, Kojo Impraim, emphasized the need to improve climate‑change reporting and to place it on the “front burner” of news coverage. In a message to the fellows, Ama Kudjo of DW Akademie encouraged them, saying, “Dear Fellows, you have the opportunity to lead the charge for change on climate issues in West Africa. Become the voice of climate reporting because you have been equipped to tell the story.”
Chairperson of the event and Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, John Allotey, expressed his satisfaction at having young journalists specialized in covering climate‑change issues in the region. During a panel discussion, David Quaye of the Ghana Meteorological Agency stressed that journalists should go beyond reporting weather events and crises; they must present information in simple, understandable language for their audiences.
The ceremony was attended by representatives from the embassies of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, as well as several civil‑society organisations.
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