Africa-Press – Lesotho. The British High Commission’s Climate Change and Environmental Reporting Competition has finally announced the winners who went away with a M10 000 worth HP i5 laptop each and M20 000 equipment voucher for their respective media houses.
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Journalist Liapeng Raliengoane scooped the first and only award under the Print Category with her article “Sustainable farming methods increase resilience to climate change” which educates about conservation agriculture
and land rehabilitation techniques while Banana Hatahata from the Ultimate FM won under the Radio/TV Category for her radio programme “Climate change and gender inequalities” which stressed the effects
of climate shocks on the most vulnerable in the society. The prestigious awarding ceremony was held on Friday. Raliengoane’s winning article also made strides on international platforms such as Climate Tracker and Haki Nawiri
Afrika. She was also commented by the British High Commission for publishing and submitting many feature articles on Climate Change and Environmental Protection.
She was reportedly scored highest by the two adjudicators. While receiving the award at the ceremony, Raliengoane indicated that she felt honoured and humbled to be
receiving such an important award which is a motivation to her as she has been and continues reporting on Climate Change and Environmental Protection.
She expressed gratitude to God, British High Commission, BAM Media, her News Sources, Colleagues and everyone who helped her. She said the competition
journey was tough and challenging though educational, as she had to conduct wide research, intensive interviews and experienced disappointments at some
stage. “Climate Change is a topic very close to my heart. I began writing intensively about it after the Journalists Training on Climate Change and Environmental Protection Reporting
facilitated by the Ministry of Energy and Meteorology,” Raliengoane highlighted. Conducted for opinion, Southern Breed Innovation Climate Ambassador, Letsatsi Lekhooa mentioned that these
awards serve as a good start for motivation of journalists. He mentioned that Lesotho needs to have more climate and environmental reporters. He added that
these awards are important as they give drive to people so that they continue writing articles related to climate change, also to teach communities about
climate change issues. “For the sake of the country I think the articles should be translated to Sesotho so that people in the communities should understand
more about climate change. Going forward we should diversify the language so that people from remote areas like Quthing and Qacha’s Nek understand the
message,” he noted. He also urged the winning journalists to continue advocating for climate change and reporting about it. He mentioned that journalists should make climate change reporting a norm,
saying people need to engage in climate change issues and try to understand it, “maybe a lot more other journalists can start reporting about climate change in
both Sesotho and English,” he suggested. Also present at the award ceremony, British High Commissioner Her Excellency Anne Macro acknowledged and thanked all journalists who are playing these important roles of holding the government
to account for and educating the public on climate change issues. “I would like to thank particularly those who took part in this competition. Thank you for
the effort you have all put in scouting the stories, conducting research, holding numerous interviews, some in remote corners of Lesotho, perfecting the writing script and thank you for the enthusiasm with which you have taken on these tasks which came through in your reporting,” she said.
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