Towards better informed reporting

The avowed purpose of TERI Newswire has always been, and continues to be, to bring to its readers a selection of relevant stories on energy, environment, and sustainable development as covered by leading Indian dailies. This brief helps us in that it defines our responsibility as essentially that of selecting from among the published stories. It is the press that keeps its fingers on the nation?s pulse, as it were. However, it has always been TERI?s endeavour to encourage more informed reporting, and explaining the science behind topical issues is one of the means to that end. The recent seminar that TERI organized for journalists from South and South-East Asia brought together 24 practising journalists from 11 countries. The objective of this exercise was to sensitize the journalists to the many complex issues related to the forthcoming WSSD (World Summit on Sustainable Development) at Johannesburg; to lay before them various shades of opinions articulated by local, national, regional, and global institutions, national governments, and other stakeholders; and to make them aware of the divergent and often conflicting interests of the developing and the developed world on every global dialogue on environment. The results of this initiative are not in yet but readers of TERI Newswire will surely be the indirect beneficiaries.