Caged Media and Empty NGO booths

Suddenly the media was caged in and the NGO area empty this morning — thanks to the heads of state rolling in.

For a starter we could not  move freely in and out of the media centre as we previously did.  And there was an announcement that to attend press briefings in the main press conference room, journos needed to queue up for a shuttle; and escorted  by Danish cops , they would be transported in a shuttle for what was a one-minute walk or half-minute dash across the atrium and a corridor.  And to leave the media room to take the shuttle, they need to undergo a security check once again. “Crazy” muttered Carlos Gomez, from El Salvador and here is his snap:

media caged in the COP

Regardless of the twists and turns in the COP talks, walking through Hall H where all NGOs gathered daily pepped things up.

The once bustling NGO area

The NGO hall today

The area looks deserted today.

No more chants supporting the little drowning island of Tuvalu; or people dressed as pandas or frogs to highlight a range of climate issues, or holding forth on concerns over the way the discussions were going.

Our erstwhile SciDev.Net colleague Daniel Nelson observes wryly, that the heads of state would prefer not to be contaminated by any of us.

T V Padma and Mohammed Yahia