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Exciting Experience in Australia

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Have you ever been to Melbourne or Brisbane? Well if you have been to this two cities of Australia, you would have tasted and experieced the lifestyle and feel the cool and warm climate of this cities.

It was my best ever experience for a month tour in this two cities, attending the Mining, Media and Development Regional Knowledge Sharing Training, organized by the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre (APJC).

The training started on  the 24th of August and run for a month – ending on the 28th of September 2013.

The beautiful scenery of the Brighton beach – east brighton melbourne, the ghost haunting tour,  the melbourne writers festival and taking walk around the yarra river and melbourne city as well as visiting the Bengalla mine site in Muswellbrook in Scone and touring the Port Waratah are the excitment and experience I will never forget in my lifetime.

At least having a different feeling of the environment away from a day to day style of newsroom routine in my NBC Newsroom in Port Moresby was something I thought of and have convinced my bosses to send me to attend the APJC training. And with no doubt, the Melbourne and Brisbane cities provided me much to relax and refresh.

Not limited to this, but the APJC Training on Mining, Media and Development Regional Knowledge Sharing Training had been the best ever training in my life, apart from other trainings I attended since my five year carrier as news reporter with the PNG’s Public Boadcaster (NBC).

The training broadend my knowledge on business reporting, online media, getting to know better of myself and my carrier and having to know APJC Staff and prominent persons like Professors from the Monash University Prof Erik Eklund, associate Prof Philip Chubb, Suzy Woodhouse – Professional Development Instructor, Deborah Steele – Editor ABC Asia Pacific News Center, Nigel McCarthy- Business Journalism Instructor, Serena Lillywhite – Oxfam Australia Mining Advocacy Coordinator, and Renee  Barnes – Lecturer in new media journalism, University of the Sunshine Coast.

I recommend for more of such trainings in future for upcoming pacific island countries journalists to broaden their knowledge in business reporting, especially in the mining and resources sector because of lack of public knowledge on the impacts and benefits of mining in the region.

 

 

Foto : Sebelas peserta APJC (Mining, Media and Development) 2013

Hello Every body, saya coba untuk memperkenalkan sebelas peserta workshop untuk program Mining, Media dan Development 2013 yang di selenggarakan oleh Asia Pacific Journalism Centre (APJC). Siapa sajakah mereka.  Let’s see,

 

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Lovina dari Riau, Indonesia

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Dian dari Makassar, Indonesia

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Udin dari Bojonegoro, Jawa Timur, Indonesia

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Gabriel Bego dari Papua New guinea

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Rickson dari Solomon Island

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Gynne Kero dari Papua New Guinea

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Mapun dari Papua New Guinea

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Duma dari Papua.

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Ulfa (jilbab orange) dari Medan, Indonesia

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Tevita dari Fiji

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Tommy (saya sendiri) duduk merentangkan tangan.

Nah, kalian sudah melihat wajah mereka. Untuk mengetahui lebih jauh tentang mereka, tunggu update berikutnya yah. Coming Soon.

Learning Climate Change in Five Weeks

The Reporting Climate Change and the Environment Workshop organised by the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre was a good experience for me personally as I got to meet other journalists from around the region, share stories and experiences, talk to the scientists and experts involved in organisations concerned with the issue of climate change and visit some of the sites within Melbourne and Tasmania.

The first week was quite effective in helping us to prepare for the four weeks ahead, involving personal and leadership skills. I discovered a lot about my personality and how I do things at work. Also learning about how to manage stress and how to become a better negotiator by influencing others at work. I also found that mentoring skills were useful to resolve problems I might be dealing with at work.

During the second week I was nervous as I didn’t know what to expect discussing climate change but Philip Chubb was quite helpful in providing a basic introduction into the topic first by telling us about Australia’s position on climate change with the passing of Australia’s legislation in parliament on carbon tax. Also guest speakers from The Age, Oxfam, the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility and Monash University gave a better insight into climate change effects happening globally and ways to report it.

The visit to the Melbourne Zoo was enjoyable as we got to see the animals but were also informed of the conservation areas around the world and extinct species under protection programs. Going to the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation was quite eye opening and interesting as I got to learn about the science of climate change and being able to get a report on Samoa under the Pacific Climate Change Science Program which is something I would like to follow up when I get home.

By the second week I learned to create a blog and I found it a nifty way to get my news stories out there and is also a good way to keep in touch with the other fellows and get an update on what climate change stories they have written since the workshop.

More discussions followed on climate change during the following week with Phil Chubb before we had to prepare for Hobart. While in Tasmania we met Environment Editor for The Age, Adam Morton and visited Styx Valley. Also met Vica Bayley from the Wilderness Society and two representatives from REDD. Seeing firsthand what had been discussed at APJC, I got to see areas that had been logged and heard from Vica how they were trying to conserve some of the forests that were to be logged. The next day we visited the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park and fed kangaroos which was fun! :)…We then continued on to Port Arthur and took the ferry to the Isle of the Dead to see a mark which measures sea level rise and according to John Hunter from the Institute for the Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania the sea level has risen by 13cm during a certain period since they conducted their research.

We also visited the Environmental Defenders Office to talk about the environmental policies in Tasmania and the Australia Antarctic Division which I found interesting how Dr Rob King explained how they were conducting a special research on krill from the Antarctic. The symposium at the University of Tasmania gave us all the opportunity to share the experience of reporting climate change within the Asia Pacific Region. I thought the group did really well in answering questions from the audience and they were just as impressed too. It was sad to leave Hobart as it was such a nice quiet place and we had seen so much but the memories will be with me always.

Returning back to APJC, we have one more week to go and this week will be assigned for work attachment. I have learnt so much during this workshop and am grateful to APJC, AusAid and Cherelle Jackson for this valuable opportunity.

Pelatihan APJC Meningkatkatkan Pengetahuan Wartawan

Peserta Pelatihan APJC 2011 (Photo by : Stefanus Akim)

Bagi aku program yang di selengarakan oleh Asia Pacific Journalism (APJC) tiap tahun bagi negara bagian Asia dan Pacific  sangatlah membantu, karena Negara-negara tersebut termasuk Timor Leste, sebagian besar masyarakat belum tahu apa itu perubahan iklim, termasuk Wartawan.

Kalo di Negara aku Timor Leste banyak Wartawan yang menulis history atau Berita mengenai perubahan iklim, tapi kebayakan kita tulis sesuai dengan pengetahuan kita sendiri, maka itu kadang-kadang membuat Masyarakat bingun dengan informasi yang kita sampaikan.

padahal fungsi seorang wartawan adalah memberi informasi yang akurat dan detail atau tidak membuat masyarakat bingun dengan apa kita sampaikan. maka itu aku kira dengan program yang di selengarakan loleh APJC dengan tema Perubahan Iklim itu sangat membantu para Wartawan, (espesial wartawan dari Timor Leste) untuk meninkatkan peliputan atau dalam menjulis sebuah history mengenai perubahan iklim itu sendiri.

Pelatihan perubahan iklim APJC

peserta trenin APJC 2011

Melbourne Monday 21 November 2011

 Perjalanan dari Timor Leste menuju kota Melbourne melalui Bandara Udara Internasional Prezidente Nicolao Lobato Dili, diawali pada hari sabtu tanggal 15 October 2011 hingga hari sabtu 26 November 2011.

selama keberadaan saya di kota Melbourne tanggal 17 October 2011, saya bersama lima teman lain diantaranya, Stefanus Akim, Made Ali, Nugi Anuhgera Perkasa dari Indonesia, Yuliana Lantipo Weast Papua dan Teresinha da Costa dari Timor Leste.

 Tanggal 17 s/d 22 October 2011 kami menggikuti program belajar bahasa Inggris tanggal 23-24 October prei.

 Minggo kedua ada teman tuju orang berasal dari Negara Asia Pacific seperti Rikamati Naare dari Kribati, Alain Simeon, Vanuatu, Vere-Fiji, Unumoe Esera-Samoa, Monalia Palu-Tonga, Rozalle-Salomo Ilhan, Peter Korugl, Anissa dari Papua Nugini bergabung dengan Kami mengikuti pelajaran Phiscology dari Torry.

Mingo ketiga kami semua belajar lagi teori tentang Perubahan Iklim di Pacific Asia Journalism Centre Melbourne, lalu kunjungi Kebun binatang Victoria Melbourne.

Minggo ke empat kami berangkat masih tetap belajar teoria tengtang perubahan Iklim di tempat yang sama.

Minggo ke lima elompk ini kunjungi ke Hourbat Tasmania dan melanjutka kegiatan kunjungi langsunga ke hutan Kayu yang bernama Styx Forest bersama Adam dan temannya yanglain, hari kedua, kami kunjungi lagi ke kebung Binatang pribadi Divil’s dan Kanguru asmania, baru melanjutkan perjalanan kunjungan ke tempat Turis di Area Arthur dan pulau pemakaman Penjarah hari berikutnya kunjungi Museum Mona hari jumat kami akhiri denga komfrenci da presentasi masi-masing baru pulan kembali ke APJC Melbourne.

Personal experience APJC AusAid ALA Fellowship

VERENAISI RAICOLA

Photo provided by VR

I am priviledged to be part of the APJC reporting climate change and the environment fellowship from October 24 to November 25, 2011.

At first I thought the five weeks would drag but it certainly passed by so fast that we are now on the final week_ hooray! The friends and exposure I have had during this time cannot be measured by money and I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this program.

It is indeed a valuable experience for me and a great boost to my career as a journalist as I walk away here better informed and with a wider knowledge about Climate Change. I have in the past been involved with climate change writing but this specific training opportunity will certainly enrich my writing skills on the subject.

Speakers like reporter Joe Chandler of the Age who were able to relate climate change to her experiences in countries like Afrika, PNG and Afghanistan, the visit to CSIRO and the talk with scientists was very engaging. Special thanks to Torrey Orton for personal development training_ it was good to know that stress levels of journalists from th Pacific, Inonesia, East Timor and our good frond from Papua were at explosive levels compared to journalists based in Australia! Climate change is a critical subject for journalists like me in the region as we struggle daily to adapt to its effects unfolding right bfore our eyes and to tell our stories an.

It’s not new and my colleagues will agree that our traditional farmers back home and our fellow villagers know that changes are occuring all around them. In fact with warming temperatures and extreme weather conditions this is a daily topic of discussion around the yaqona tanoa back at home.

They can tell you stories about sea level rise and the changes to the traditional calendars as clearly as scientists do except that they do it in simple terms and relate it to their daily simple experiences!

I must mention that I enjoyed all aspects of the training in Australia and found it to be a learning experience both in Melbourne and Tasmania. The trip down to Tasmania was especialy exciting and eye opening.

The visit to the Styx Valley, Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park,Port Arthur Historic Site, Environment Defenders Office, Austraian Antarctic Division, The Mona Museum as well as the Symposium on Environmental Politics and Conflict in an Age of Digital Media were all a breath of fresh air and an experience in itself.

Such refresher courses and attachments out of the normal newsroom atmosphere back in our home countries helps journalists lift their level of understanding and in turn writing on such complex topics like Climate Change to another level. I believe neighboring countries like Australia should also take time out to learn about the effects of Climate Change in countries in the Pacific so it can make their mitigation experiences more real.

It is only when they take time to learn what is happening in the Pacific and how these small economies are struggling to adapt will the message flow and others around the world will realise the importance of reducing emissions!

The keynote address by Senator Christine Milne of the Australian Greens at the Environmental Politics and Conflict Symposium was touching.

I admire the way she acknowledged indigenous people, how they were marginalised all over the world and also how they were the very population affected by Climate Change.

I must say it was warming to know that at least someone in the Australian Parliament bothers to know what is happening to the people in the Pacific and that countries like Australia she says needs to do more to help our region adapt to Climate Change.

Thank you APJC for the great learning experience and I hope AusAid gives you more funding to train journalists in the region who are feeling the direct impacts of Climate Change so they can do a better job raising awareness as their communities struggle with adaptation policies.

After all it is through the media that our people would be able to tell their stories and make a difference in this global village we share. Once again Vinaka Vakalevu to John Wallace, Alex, Catherine, Putri, Budi, Laura,Gee, Philip and all those that made this experience a memorable one.

My APJC Training Experience

APJC Fellows with The Age Senior Environment Journalist Adam Morton at the University of Tasmania

The Climate Change Reporting Fellowship carried out by the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre, APJC, in Melbourne and Hobart in the last five weeks have been a fruitful and informative one for me as a pacific journalist. It was also a memorable trip with visits to some of Australia’s famous locations such as the Mona Museum and Port Arthur in Tasmania.

I also particularly found the personal leadership skills workshop with Torry Orton, the Psychologist and Leadership specialist in the first week of the training very valuable as it made me know more about what kind of person I was and the stress levels I had. It also helped me understand myself more.

The various presentations of how stories could be generated from climate change issues were also helpful with The Age Senior Writer, Jo Chandler really driving the nail home with her suggestions of getting stories from rural areas but also verifying if the effects they were suffering from were from climate change or caused by man- made activities not related to climate change.  She also emphasized the importance of humanizing and simplifying stories.

Professional visits to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation,  CSIRO Aspendale Office also were very informative with new information and data collected from their observations in the changing climate in pacific island countries, while the visit to Tasmania’s CSIRO centre -also known as Australia’s gate-way to Antarctica was also an exciting one with us having a video conference with one of their Scientists at the Casey Station.

Sessions with Phil Chubb were also very helpful and it made me understand more Australia’s debate on Carbon Tax – we were here when it was passed – and also what it meant for big companies, the Australian government and the public.

From this workshop – I take with me better skills to report properly on climate change in Solomon Islands, a better understanding of myself,  more knowledge of the Australian debate on climate change and how it actually determines the nation’s prime minister , an understanding of how climate change is a complex issue that involves the biggest international organisations such the United Nations right to the people on the remote islands back at home. I have also established a network of professional people which include the Indonesian Reporters at the workshops, various journalism academics, Australian journalists and scientists whom I was privileged to meet, I know these connections will be useful to my work on environmental reporting in the future.

I would also like to thank the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre, the Australian Government and the Pacific Alliance for Developmental Journalists who have made this training possible!!! I have learnt a lot of new things and also established a new network!Thank you for the opportunity!! 🙂

Australia could do more to help Pacific Island countries deal with climate change

As small island developing states, including the pacific, gear up towards the Conference of the Parties meeting in Durban next week to once again reinforce the urgent plea of saving their people and countries from the effects of climate change, Tasmania Greens Senator says Australia could do more to help pacific island countries deal with climate change in funding a Secretariat for the Alliance of Small Island Developing States.

AOSIS is a non-governmental organization of low lying atolls and coastal countries established since 1990 to consolidate the voices of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to address global warming. AOSIS has been very active from its inception and 15 out of the 42 members and observers from all around the world are pacific island countries.

Speaking to pacific journalists last Friday following a presentation at the 2011 Environmental Politics and Conflict in an Age of Digital Media Symposium at the University of Tasmania, in Australia, Greens Senator Christine Milne says the first thing Australia could do is to provide funding for  a Secretariat for AOSIS.

“ I understand that the pacific is being given the chair of the AOSIS and the first thing Australia could do is give a couple of million dollars to the pacific to provide a secretariat for AOSIS, because if AOSIS is to maintain a good profile and capacity in global climate talks it needs to have a secretariat support, so the first thing Australia could do is to get involved  and give more support at that level.”

Senator Milne adds that Australia also needs to separate climate finance from the aid budget for transparency purposes.

“Secondly they should be separating out climate finance faster and long term from the aid budget because what Australia has done is that is has put the aid budget and climate finance together and so Australian people are told constantly that we are doing the right thing with their climate funding plus the increase of the aid budget but actually if you separate them out, you’ll see that we are not.”

“So the next thing Australia needs to do is to make sure that it has transparency and it’s aid funding is separate from climate financing.”

The Tasmanian Greens Senator also spoke of the need to increase capacity building with pacific government departments by allowing people to come to work in Australian government departments such as the Great Barrier Reef Park Authority.

“I worked really hard to get the coral reefs of New Caledonia, for example, listed as world heritage and I worked very hard on that and am delighted that we succeeded in doing that a couple of years ago, but obviously there’s a huge amount that could be learnt from the management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, PNG could learn from those fantastic coral reefs, but right through the pacific there’s a whole range of issues.

In terms of assistance with adaptation, certainly assisting with know-how and technology that enables people to be able to keep being able to produce food where they live in light of the rising sea levels and salt water incursion is really important as well, plus a whole range of things.”

“But also there has to be a long term plan and this is what nobody is talking about and it goes to what I mentioned hearing Tuvalu says in the global talks in Nairobi – who will take my people? – hearing a pacific leader stand up and say that if the world knew that six countries were going to disappear but didn’t know which six, maybe people would be a bit more focused in acting on climate change and I thought that was a really good way of putting it because even with all the adaptation that will occur in the pacific, there are going to be some places like Kiribati and Tuvalu, for example, where ultimately people are going to have to move and we need to be thinking about how people can move and maintain their cultural identity and communities when they do move.”

So I think there’s a lot we could be doing but the first thing we should be doing is acknowledging that climate change is real and already creating substantial problems and internal migration, loss of burial and cultural sites, agricultural capacity and fresh water right now.”

Meanwhile on the question of the lack of coverage of climate change issues in pacific island countries by the Australian media, Senator Milne says the Australian media does not cover in a factual way the existing impact of climate change on pacific island countries.

She says it is extremely rare to find a photograph prominently placed in the Australian print media or stories prominently placed in current affairs or news bulletins about the impacts of storm surge or of any of the extreme weather events or issues such as salt water incursion, loss of capacity to grow food and loss of fresh water.

“You just don’t see those photographs in the Australian media or the stories, and if you do, they are placed as the sort of stories as human interest not related to news coverage of why the world needs to take action of climate change so it’s more of a travel log story than a front page story saying these are the existing consequences of climate change, that’s why we have to take action.

And the reason they’re not there is because if you say that, it makes it much harder for people to argue that there is no such thing as climate change, it’s not happening and it won’t happen for another hundred years, it’s going to cost us too much therefore we don’t need to do much about it – so it completely contradicts the line of argument that the Murdoch Press in particular want to take and that’s why it’s an inconvenient story that doesn’t get covered.”

Senator Christine Milner was interviewed by Vere Raicola of the Fiji Times, Rozalee Nongebatu of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation and Rikamati Nare Kiribati’s Broadcasting Commission who are currently doing a Climate Change Reporting fellowship in Australia under the Australian Leadership Award Scheme.

The three pacific journalists are part of a group of 15 journalists from the Asia Pacific region who  are undertaking the training coordinated by the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre in Melbourne and Tasmania.

ENDS/////

Kiribati shares important values and goals with UN

The UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon has said that Kiribati’s traditional words of blessing of ‘Te Mauri, Te Raoi, and Te Tabomoa’

UNSG planting mangrove in Kiribati. Photo by Eskinder Debebe

sums up the value of the United Nations.

Ban Ki-moon made the statement at a state dinner hosted by Kiribati’s President Anote Tong in his recent visit to Kiribati in early September this year.

He said the United Nations and Kiribati both share the goals of Peace, Health and Prosperity with both countries concerned about Climate Change.

“Many countries are dealing with climate change but in Kiribati, climate change threatens your territory, your culture and your very way of life”, he adds.

The secretary also recalls President Tong’s address at one of the UN General Assembly where he challenged all the leaders to take action on Climate Change and said, “I fear that our children and grandchildren will look back and ask, how is it that they knew what they knew and yet did so little?”.

APJC Training On Climate Change

APJC Climate Change

Pada 16 Oktober 2011, saya bersama tiga teman wartawan Indonesia

‘Forest Destruction, Climate Crime, Moratorium Now by Greenpeace Esperanza

berangkat ke Melbourne, Australia untuk menghadiri undangan pelatihan jurnalistik yang diselenggarakan oleh Asia Pasific Jurnalism Centre “Climate Change” selama enam minggu.

Ketiga teman saya adalah Anugerah Perkasa (Bisnis Indonesia), Stefanus Akim (Borneo Tribune), dan Made Ali (Bahana Mahasiswa), serta saya sendiri dari Sinar Harapan.

Pada minggu pertama, kami belajar tentang “Workshop English” yang diampu oleh Catherine Green dan dibantu Budi Setyo sebagai penerjemah ke bahasa Indonesia. Kami belajar Listening, Writing, Speaking, Grammar, Preposition, dan banyak conversation. Kami juga mengunjungi Melbourne Museum yang terletak dua blok dibelakang Ques Appartment, on Lygon St yakni tempat kami menginap hingga 26 November nanti. Continue reading