Govind Tekale
UNESCO dedicates World Press Freedom Day 2024, on May 3, to environmental journalism. For this international organization, journalistic work is key to confronting current environmental challenges and the advance of climate change. With the aim of correctly and exhaustively transmitting this environmental information, contemplating all its aspects, challenges, dysfunctions, as well as proposing appropriate guidelines and recommendations, 25 experts have published the work “Ethics of Environmental Communication and Climate Change”, published by Tecnos. Coordinated by professors Maite Mercado (UV) and Gemma Teso (UCM), and with a prologue by the president of the Association of Environmental Information Journalists (APIA), María García de la Fuente, this book is part of the ‘Ethics of Communication’ Collection, directed by Professor Hugo Aznar, from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH) in Valencia.
Journalism professors from fourteen universities, including a dozen researchers from the Climate Change Communication Observatory of the Complutense University, and the director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University, together with renowned specialists with extensive experience in the media and in organizations such as the Spanish Office of Climate Change or the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), offer in this book a tool for analysis and application of knowledge to future communicators and journalists interested in approaching environmental specialization.
This volume focused on environmental journalism is the third in the ‘Ethics of Communication’ Collection, directed by Professor Hugo Aznar, as a result of the interest of the Tecnos publishing house in the results of the research line Deliberative Democracy and Communication, which he directs at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH) in Valencia.
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According to Professor Hugo Aznar, within the collection focused on the ethics of communication, the new volume addresses the correct treatment of environmental information to avoid disinformation and also the risk of promoting catastrophism or ‘eco-anxiety’. He mentioned that it was a surprise that UNESCO had decided to dedicate the 2024 Freedom of Expression Day to environmental information, considering they had just published this work. He added that this reinforces the conviction that their line of research at CEU UCH is working in the right direction and producing useful results for society.
On this World Press Freedom Day 2024, dedicated to environmental journalism, UNESCO points out that “awareness of all aspects of the different environmental crises and their effects is essential to building democratic societies and journalistic work plays a fundamental role in responding to this crisis”. For UNESCO, good environmental journalism must counter misinformation and disinformation campaigns that seek to cast doubt on scientific knowledge, in order to transmit “accurate, timely and exhaustive” information on environmental problems, their consequences and possible solutions.
The “Ethics of Communication” Collection of the Tecnos publishing house, coordinated by Hugo Aznar, presented on April 11 at the Press Association of Madrid (APM), addresses issues for which the role of journalism and communicative treatment constitutes a fundamental challenge for society and its proper functioning, such as the environmental issue. The collection includes collective works, by renowned researchers, aimed at addressing, from a practical, ethical and critical perspective, the different aspects and nuances of matters pertaining to social communication, as well as their current state. It also includes guides with specific indications, extracted from the recommendations of the codes of ethics, to help journalists in their professional practice to report on issues such as immigration, gender violence, or vulnerability and human fragility, among others.
