Transforming Societies: German-Eastern European Journalist Bursaries on Climate and Energy Issues

In Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, media presence and reporting of German media from these countries are capable of improvement. Most of the correspondents are based in larger cities, such as Prague or Warsaw, but not in the regions or smaller EU member states. Climate and energy issues from these countries have only become a topic of German reporting since the Russian war on Ukraine and the related energy policy issues. In this regard, there is a lot of untapped potential concerning high-quality, continuous reporting on climate and energy issues. However, promoting these topics in the media is challenging since there are no bilateral or international journalistic networks to provide journalists with research approaches and trustworthy sources.

Fellows of the German-Central Eastern European Bursary at a networking event in Prague, Photo: ©Julia Weibel

To address these issues, the project promoted cross-national journalism on climate and energy issues and, thus, raised awareness in politics and society. An international network between journalists, climate and energy experts helped to advance the media coverage of these issues and achieve long-term effects in politics and social initiatives. Journalists from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia received a scholarship to work two months abroad in a media house and reported as correspondents about climate and energy issues for their host and home media. To offer support and qualification regarding contacts and content in the area of climate and energy issues, the programme cooperated with Clean Energy Wire. Subsequent to the programme, fellows stayed in touch with the alumni network and built an expert network with the counterparts of their host countries. Based on the experiences of preceding projects, such as the Climate-Energy Fellowship for Journalists, the Central Eastern European Climate and Energy Policy Scholarship for Journalists as well as the Climate and Energy Fellowship for Journalists in Europe, the project contributed to broadening and deepening the coverage of climate transformation on a European level.

• Training for climate and energy journalists: A total of 60 journalists from Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary received scholarships and were trained as experts in the climate and energy sector. The project thus strengthened the professional expertise of a new generation of journalistic specialists in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. 
• Strong output of climate reporting: Over 200 articles, videos and other journalistic contributions on climate and energy topics were produced during the project period. As some research required more time and will only be published after the end of the project, this number will continue to rise. The project therefore made a significant contribution to increasing high-quality, fact-based climate reporting in the region. 
• Building an international network of journalists: Eleven digital and face-to-face events were held to connect journalists from the target countries and strengthen their dialogue on climate and energy issues. In addition to scholarship holders and alumni, other journalists also took part, creating a broad, permanent international network that supports professional dialogue and the quality of climate reporting in the long term.