OSCE Centre in Bishkek supports regional eco-journalism festival in Kyrgyzstan

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, 16 October 2015 - The OSCE Centre in Bishkek is organizing the regional eco-journalism festival in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan on 15 and 16 October 2015 with the aim of promoting environmental journalism in the Fergana Valley and raising public awareness of environmental issues and effective environmental management.

The festival gathers media representatives from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to talk about challenges in environmental journalism, to learn about the activities of Aarhus Centres and to visit sites where waste from local uranium mines are stored.

Kanybek Isabaev, Director of Aarhus Centre in Osh, said that the festival is the result of the Memorandum of Co-operation signed in September last year with Aarhus Centre in Khudjand, northern Tajikistan.

“We came to understanding the significance of raising awareness and building the capacity of communities in environmental disaster risk reduction,” he said, noting that the role of the media in this should not be underestimated.

Yulia Minaeva, Senior Economic and Environmental Officer at the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, said that the environment and security are closely related matters and there is an important link between raising awareness on environmental issues and promoting public participation in environmental decision-making. “This event also marks the highest level of regional co-operation between the Aarhus Centres in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan,” she said.

In early July, the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and Arhus Centres of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan announced a competition among journalists to identify the best reports with environmental focus. This year’s theme was about raising awareness of the good practices in disaster risk management in the border areas of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The Aarhus Centres received hundreds of articles, TV and radio reports.

Ten winners from each country were selected and invited to the award ceremony, which will be held during the festival.

The event is part of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek project on strengthening the capacity of the Aarhus Centres in disaster risk reduction in order to enhance awareness of local communities.