Dr Kiran Hassan presented a paper at the UNESCO's Online Academic Conference celebrating Press Freedom Day

Dr Kiran Hassan presented an academic paper at the UNESCO's Online Academic Conference celebrating Press Freedom Day on 27 April 2023.

The topic of the paper that she gave was 'Climate Media Stories in the Global South':

"Why do climate media stories suffer in the global south? (Case study – Pakistan 2022 floods). Pakistan suffered its deadliest floods in August 2022 and remains the 8th most vulnerable country on the global index of countries facing acute global climate crisis. The country’s biblical level floods as a result of climate catastrophe is one example of a rapidly and dangerously declining natural environment in South Asia. As scorching heatwaves, colossal floods, prolonged droughts and repeated earthquakes grip the most populated part of the world, there is an urgent need to address the issue of how mainstream media is presenting these climate stories. Taking the case of 2022 floods in Pakistan, this paper aims to investigate why the mainstream media fails to raise the issues around climate change/ floods in their narrative. How media narratives can educate and prepare the public on one level and keep the government’s policy/ management towards climate disasters in check on another? How can the media improve on climate coverage in future? Drawing from MT Boykoff’s argument where he suggests that the mainstream media narratives has to be based and can benefit climate policy if it includes the experience of climate change most vulnerable communities in his book, who speaks for the climate? (Cambridge Press, 2012), this paper investigates how the complex politics of decision makers and Pakistani mainstream media have repeatedly failed to cultivate a connection between climate disasters like floods, the experience of the most climate affected communities and public perception in 2010 and 2022."