Problem overview:

     Awareness and visions: China has set up massive media campaigns to facilitate its Agenda 21 in raising public awareness on environmental issues.

     Training and educational initiatives: In this particular case, the media plays a critical role in informing and educating the public about current environmental problems and how everyone can contribute in minimizing such problems.

Background:

      Environmental media, getting people tuned in

      Environmental Watch is an annual massive campaign aimed at raising the public awareness of environmental protection. The program was jointly initiated in September 1993, by the Committee on Environment and Resources Protection of the National People's Congress (NPC), the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the Ministry of Radio and Television, and the National Environmental Protection Agency.

      Each year, a 10-member crew from CCTV, China's leading media organization, goes to 10-20 provinces and municipalities in August to report on local environmental and ecological conditions. A special Environmental Watch column is set aside in prime-time TV news programs. Both achievements and problems are presented in those reports. In addition, 100 reporters from 20 leading newspapers have been assigned to key areas across the nation to do environmental reporting.

      Altogether, 300 reports have been printed in major newspapers. The bombardment of these TV and newspaper reports constitutes a massive media campaign, serving to raise the public awareness of environmental issues and drawing widespread attention.

      The NPC's Committee on Environmental and Resource Protection launched another media campaign in 1998 by organizing 150 journalists from CCTV and 20 other media organizations to report on marine pollution in coastal provinces. The reports focused on the implementation of the Law on the Protection of the Marine Environment and current pollution of marine environment and resources. The aim was to draw attention from local governments to the protection of the marine environment and marine resources.

      Encouraged by the CCTV's Environment Watch, provinces and municipalities initiated local programs to monitor their own environmental quality. Incomplete statistics show that do date, 25 provinces (autonomous regions) and 212 cities have launched such a watchdog program.

      Themes of the annual Environment Watch program since 1993: