Covering complex topics such as environmental injustice calls for novel reporting approaches. If a topic needs the skills of social scientists, environmental experts and investigative journalists, why not gather those skills in a team? The results might transgress the boundaries of traditional journalism or academia, but they do justice to issues that are otherwise inadequately covered.
With this in mind, working together with Dumitrita Holdis, I c0-organised the ‘Black Waters’ project that brought together two teams of social scientists, journalists, and environmental experts from the Center for Media Data and Society at the Central European University, Balkan Insight and Átlátszó. This transnational, multidisciplinary collaborative project sought to experiment in developing new reporting methodologies while investigating two cases of environmental injustice: sturgeon poaching in the Romanian Danube Delta and toxic waste mismanagement in Almásfüzitő, Hungary.
The results of which are collected here and here and here (and below).
They include:
- An article on hazardous waste deposit at the red sludge reservoirs in Almásfüzitő was issued a new permit, this article is also available in Hungarian
- A podcast series of interviews with fisherfolk on the Danube Delta
- How researchers and journalists can work together
- In Hungary, environmental protection is crippled so as not to hinder economic development, this article is also available in Hungarian.
- In a Romanian Fishing Village, Caviar is a Distant Memory
- Almásfüzitő: a divided settlement in the shadow of the former red mud reservoir, this interview also available in Hungarian.
- The Life and Times of Red Mud Reservoir № VII – A comic about the bauxite tailings storage facility in Almásfüzítő. This comic is also available in Hungarian.
- Red Mud, a Divided Settlement and the Toxic Waste Poisoning Hungary
- Plenty of fish in the sea!? – A booklet about poaching sturgeon in the Danube Delta, and the locals’ concerns. This booklet is also available in Romanian
- An audio documentary, ‘Red Alert’, (forthcoming)
- Red Sludge on the Blue Danube