The 10th edition of the Biosafety Protocol News focuses on experiences and lessons learned with regard to the role of media in promoting biosafety awareness.
The articles report on experiences and strategies by governments as well as a national newspaper and an international online network on science and development.
October 2012: The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has released the latest edition of “Biosafety Protocol News,” a magazine on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, focusing on the role of media in communicating and raising awareness of biosafety issues, including experiences and lessons learned.
The issue includes articles from three governments – Belarus, China and Liberia – and two articles from a science and development network (SciDevNet) and a national newspaper from Nigeria. The government articles review media-related activities and strategies for media engagement, as well as experiences and lessons learned with regard to the media’s roles in informing the public about biosafety issues, and government activities such as the development and implementation of national biosafety frameworks.
The article by SciDevNet highlights challenges of and strategies for reporting on the complexities of biosafety in the context of polarized debate, while the article from Nigeria focuses on the role of local and national biosafety experts as source of authoritative and relevant information for the print media.
Overall, the publication portrays access to and understanding of information as essential for public awareness, education and participation, which are in turn crucial to informed decision making by all stakeholders on living modified organisms (LMOs) and the implementation of the Protocol. [Biosafety Protocol News, Issue 10: The role of media in promoting biosafety awareness]