Climate Change Conference: Focus on Media Responsibility

The Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, taking place from June 21-23, will welcome 1,300 participants from around the world.

Hermann Scheer, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, President of Eurosolar and Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy and Bertran Picard, researcher, adventurer and special ambassador for the UN are just two of the renowned experts taking part in the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum from June 21-23, 2010. This year, the international conference will operate under the title: "The Heat is On - Climate Change and the Media". Deutsche Welle is expecting around 1,300 participants from around the world to attend the conference's third edition. With more than 50 individual events and panels, representatives from science, politics, business and the media will have the chance to discuss how the media can create awareness for one of the most important topics for the future. The conference will pay special attention to how journalists can work as intermediaries for complex issues.
"In this case, intensive research, meticulous weighting of sources and precise analysis are more important than headlines and emotion," says Erik Bettermann, Deutsche Welle Director General. "We need to go beyond fear-mongering and belittlement and take on the challenges of quality journalism. The media should not automatically buy in to those who offer sensational reports from questionable disasters or those who prematurely state that all is clear."
Organizers of the three-day conference are expecting a range of renowned participants, including Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Frank Appel, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Post, Fatih Birol, Chief Economic Advisor of the International Energy Agency and Marco Arana, presidential candidate in Peru and environmental activist, who was selected as "Environmental Hero 2009" by Time Magazine.
Topics like reducing CO² emissions (mitigation), minimizing the effects of climate change (adaptation) and transforming into a post-fossil fuel, sustainable, low-carbon society (vision) are all on the agenda. Each of the individual podium discussions and workshops will also look at the media's role in communicating these issues. For example, participants will have the chance to discuss topics like climate change and desertification, consumption and climate change, perspectives in a post-carbon society, journalism and global crises as well as risks associated with environmental reporting.
Within the framework of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, DW will be awarding prizes to the winners of its international weblog awards, "The BOBs". The sixth edition of these awards also features a special prize for weblogs and podcasts dealing with climate change. Deutsche Welle is cooperating with many different organizations for this interdisciplinary conference, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the International Human Dimensions Program on Global Environmental Change (UN IHDP/ESSP), EU Commission and the World Bank, the Wuppertal Institute, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), NABU and the Climate Alliance, the Institute for World Business Kiel, German Development Institute (DIE), the Center for Development Research (ZEF), the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).
The yearly Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum offers podium discussions and workshops, interactive presentations and exhibitions, networking and interesting side events. It takes place at the World Conference Center Bonn, close to Deutsche Welle's headquarters. Co-host of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum is the Foundation for International Dialogue of the Sparkasse in Bonn. The convention is also supported by Germany's Federal Foreign Office, the Family, Women and Integration Ministry of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, European Funds for Regional Development, the city of Bonn, DHL and Faber-Castell.

(Press Release)