A wildlife rights campaigner; Lilongwe Wildlife Trust (LWT) has described journalists as critical in fighting against wildlife-related offences in the country.
Head of Campaigns and Advocacy at the Trust Samantha Nampuntha said this in Dowa during a long-day media training on wildlife-related court cases and procedures.
According to Nampuntha, journalists have been on the forefront exposing and reporting on various stories to do with wildlife offenses which has in turn made the public fully aware.
She said: “We have seen a number of articles going out into the papers, talking about arrests, sentences and convictions on various wildlife and forestry crimes.
And we thought it was good time to give media some training about these court processes and the definitions around legal terms so that people can better understand and write better stories.”
Nampuntha has since expressed optimism that a cordial relationship with the media will assist in advocating for animal rights and conserving the environment.
“Information about pangolin, back in 2018 when I first joined LWT, the number of people who knew about pangolin was zero including myself.
“The information is now widespread, it is a reference to the K5, 000 note, so that’s one big example and there are changes in that in the sense that people are getting informed and involved in environmental issues,” Nampuntha said.
One of the participants, a Lilongwe-based Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) journalist Mayeso Chikhadzula described the training as an eye opener on part journalists.
He said: “This training is very crucial to us as the key persons in the media industry, you know media plays a critical role in as far sensitising the masses on the dangers of wildlife crimes in the country is concerned.
“Wildlife-related court cases have got jargons which we are supposed to be updated as media so this training will help us to be able to write stories using proper languages.”
The workshop saw a participation of over 30 journalists from both national media houses and community radio stations.
