In the face of increasing extreme weather events and environmental degradation, the role of broadcast media in disaster preparedness and response is more crucial than ever, as they can effectively deliver early warnings, educate the public on environmental issues and disaster risks, and ensure that appropriate information circulates during emergencies.
UNESCO, as part of its global action for “Media in crisis preparedness and response”, has established a partnership with COPEAM aimed at strengthening the broadcasting capacity and modernize the infrastructure of eligible media outlets from its Mediterranean network.
In this framework, the Albanian public broadcaster RTSH has benefited from an important donation of radio broadcasting equipment (radio transmitters, antennas, IP audio decoders), which was successfully delivered in Tirana in October 2024.
According to COPEAM Secretary General Claudio Cappon, “Radio is a particularly flexible and very fast communication medium. Radio is live by definition, since it allows to immediately aggregate information and disseminate a message among the audience by the use of just a microphone and a frequency. But when working in emergencies, it requires well-trained professionals suitable to this type of activity”.
This is the reason why the initiative also includes a training on the importance of risk-related radio-content in disaster preparedness and on the implementation of Broadcast Plans during disasters. The training, scheduled online in December 2024, will be coordinated by COPEAM with the expertise of the WMO-World Meteorological Organization, and will be open to professionals from the weather service, IT division and programmes and news departments of the Albanian public broadcaster.
