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Environment Reporting
Reluctance to Read News About the Environment
‘…trying to convince people about the importance of protecting the environment
sometimes falls on deaf ears.’
By Nanise Fifita
In Tonga, an island nation in the
Pacific Ocean, environmental journalism
is a new idea. Many islanders
have been reluctant to embrace the
news this reporting brings their way,
but during the past decade coverage of
environmental stories has maintained
a slow but steady momentum.
Located in Western Polynesia, the
Kingdom of Tonga consists of 171 islands,
45 of which are inhabited. On
these islands, which are ruled by a
constitutional monarchy, people have
traditionally relied on the resources
from land and sea for their livelihood.
Skillful farmers have predicted the
weather and chosen the best time for
planting crops by studying the position
and shape of the moon. Until
recently, the use of chemicals, fertilizers
and pesticides in cultivating the
land was unheard of. Similar traditional
methods were practiced for fishing and
navigation. But those ways are changing,
too.
As a journalist who has reported on
environmental issues in Tonga, I’ve
found that trying to convince people
about the importance of protecting the
environment sometimes falls on deaf
ears. Many people are simply not interested;
they tend to assume that things
like land, trees, plants, sea and fish—
the resources they depend upon for
their livelihoods—will always be there.
Others cling to the belief that their
Creator will constantly and endlessly
supply everything for them; to them,
overuse or abuse of resources is not an
issue.
Working within this landscape and
mindset means that reporters must gain
special skills for their work to be effective.
Journalists must begin by understanding
and respecting the traditions
and cultures of an island or region.
They need, then, to use that knowl-
edge to work with community elders
and other key people to allow them to
communicate the particular threats or
damage that is occurring to their most
important sources of livelihood.
At a regional environmental seminar
for Pacific reporters organized by
the Pacific Islands News Association
(PINA) in 2001, many journalists expressed
the view that the process of
educating islanders about the importance
of conserving natural resources
would be a slow one. Even collecting
information about this topic from a
particular community or village would
probably present problems for reporters.
But participants felt that it is also
very important to stress in their stories
that safeguarding and preserving the
environment is also a vital health and
economic issue.
The Difficulties of Reporting
Environment Stories
Let me share some examples. In the
first one, a small village in Tonga was
not aware that their next-door neighbor
is the host ground for obsolete
power transformers that contain PCB’s,
a toxic and dangerous chemical. The
area was located along the coastal lagoon
in the main island, Tongatapu.
When I learned about this situation, I
was horrified to think that PCB’s might
have leaked into this lagoon, which is
the source of seafood for tens of thousands
of people who live in the area
and those who might buy seafood sold
at the market.
I quickly set up an interview with a
local government environmental officer
and his foreign counterpart, who
measured the level of PCB’s present on
each transformer. I gathered from the
interview that people who live nearby
and along the coastline were never
made aware of the danger. The most
challenging part of my reporting happened
when I tried to talk to some of
the people in the area. In my initial
attempt, no one was willing to talk to
the camera. People were afraid that
they might say something that would
offend government leaders or create
some form of social disharmony; others
felt that talking with a journalist
would infringe on their traditional duty
of respecting their leaders. Some of the
residents who were fishermen, weavers
or unemployed residents said they
were not in a position to comment on
matters that government might deal
with eventually. Most people wished
to express their opinions off-camera
and with anonymity.
In these private conversations, many
people told me that they wished the
government would quickly relocate the
transformers and conduct an immediate
and thorough cleanup. Others
wanted medical checkups to be done
on their health conditions. Some even
went to the extent of questioning concerned
officials on why they failed to
inform them earlier or whether they
chose to hide these facts.
Given this experience, how best
could a journalist collect the kind of
information with which people could
be effectively educated? The technique
I used might be regarded as one in
which it is difficult for me to maintain
objectivity. But what I was trying to do
was to convince people that what they
had to say and the level of their concern
could help speed up government
attention and action in tackling the
problem. Not speaking would lead
them nowhere. I also wanted them to
know that health issues and their livelihood
are important issues to be emphasized
and that they have the right to
air concerns in matters which directly
Nieman Reports / Winter 2002 85