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The United Nations on Thursday decided to restrict access to the global climate talks in Copenhagen for non-governmental organisations and it confronted journalists with additional security.

The measures were put in place as more than hundred world leaders began arriving in the Danish capital. This politician regretted the move.

So as a quiet tension took hold of the Bella Centre, side-events in the centre of town became more lively.
The Klimaforum is one of these. Among the visitors... These three aspiring journalists and bloggers, from Brasil, Italy and Bulgaria. They won a trip to cover the climate talks as part of the ThinkAboutIt dot EU blogging competition.

The Klimaforum mostly met the needs of those who are already convinced of the need to deal with climate change.

Climate skeptics had their own event at a separate venue.

The official negotiations on a comprehensive climate deal continued on Thursday, again without clear progress. Increasingly, observers, analysts and even politicians are admitting that a full-fledged agreement no longer is possible, and suggest such a deal needs to be hammered out in Mexico in six months.

But even if that happens, the Copenhagen summit, according to some, will not have been a waste of time and energy.

Raymond Frenken, EUX.TV, Copenhagen

Denmark Unprepared to Huge Turnout at COP15

Danish police on Wednesday kept thousands of protesters from entering the venue where the United Nations climate talks being held. A police spokesman said 250 people were arrested at various points in Copenhagen, one day before the arrival of heads of state such as US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, China's Hu Jintao, Russian president Medvedev.
Near the Bella Centre, I saw four people being arrested. At exactly midday, approximately 500 policemen began moving in on a protest that they had declared illegal.
The protest at the Bella Centre was organized by the Climate Justice action network, a Danish group that has coordinate several demonstrations. They had permission for a peaceful protest, but also announced plans to break through the barriers around the centre.
The protesters wanted to hold what they called a ‘People’s Summit’ inside the venue at one o’clock, together with non-governmental groups taking parts in the COP15 talks. Several NGO’s, including Friends of the Earth, were denied access on Wednesday.
At the moment they were supposed to meet, about one thousand protesters found themselves surrounded by police in riot gear. Outside in the freezing cold with wet snow.
Police at several moments used pepper spray and battons.
When it became clear that the protesters no longer were able enter the Centre, the police took off their helmets to adopt a less aggressive stance..
Some riot police were given time to do something else while their colleagues practized crowd control.
Meanwhile, inside the Bella Centre, tensions were heating up again. Another day without real progress has passed, and, with 24 hours to go before the heads of state of a 110 countries arrive, the Danish climate minister, Connie Hedegaard, was replaced as President of the COP15 meeting.
Raymond Frenken, for EUX.TV in Copenhagen.

Journalists, economists, academics and politicians from Europe and the US joined each other in Brussels for two days in November 2009 to discuss the role of the media in the global financial crisis. The 'Covering the Crisis' conference was organized by the European Journalism Centre, EJC.

For more on the conference: coveringthecrisis.eu

Speaking are Steve Schifferes, Professor in Financial Journalism at London City University; Damian Tambini, Senior Lecturer at the London School of Economics; New York-based media critic Daniel Schechter; Dean Starkman, editor of 'the audit' blog for the Columbia Journalism Review; Wolfgang Munchau of the Financial Times; and representatives for news organizations such as Bloomberg News, The Deal, Barron's, BBC News, BreakingViews.com, the Economist and others.