This is a far cry from the 1980s, when mainstream dailies in countries like India – which has some of the South’s most independent media – had designated environment correspondents. Press attention reached its climax during the Earth Summit in 1992. Due to the extensive coverage at the time, the environment began to be taken seriously as a subject in its own right, rather than being regarded as a ’soft’ beat, like health, generally given to women reporters.

Now print journalists in the South are discouraged from campaigning on issues like the environment, part of a worldwide trend against radicalism of any kind. This is particularly true of the fierce controversy over the Narmada Dam in central India where editors have often pilloried reporters for not presenting ‘constructive’ alternatives to the project. With the increasing moves towards the privatization of infrastructure projects, the media take the view that these big development projects should go through, as long as any adverse impacts – including the displacement of the local people – are mitigated.

A lonely furrow
Environmental journalists are being seen as a somewhat suspect specialized breed whose commitment to a cause is often stronger than to their profession. It has been left to a few small, but influential, journals and news services to plough a lonely furrow. These include Down To Earth, a fortnightly brought out by the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi; the Penang-based Third World Network, which syndicates features throughout the world; and Suara Sam and Utusan Konsumer, popular multi-lingual journals produced by Sahabat Alam (Friends of the Earth) Malaysia and the Consumers Association of Penang. Although based in Western cities, the Interpress, Panos and Gemini news services are also heavily oriented towards the coverage of environment and development issues in the South, and maintain bureaux in Southern capitals.

Some seasoned journalists remain sceptical of the bona fides of many scribes who cover the environment. Nalaka Gunawardene, the Colombo-based regional head of the Television Trust for the Environment in London, says: ‘Environmental journalism would be a whole lot better if it had more of the three Ss: science, substance and (good) stories. First and last, it has to be good journalism, and that requires accuracy, balance and credibility. Trying to save the world – as some environmental journalists claim to do – does not give them a licence to indulge in sloppy journalism, or to peddle conspiracy theories or half-truths.’