The conference was held amid tight security from October 19 to 23 at the Blue Water Hotel in Wadduwa, just outside Colombo. Among the countries represented at the meeting were China, Japan, India, Vietnam, Bhutan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Mauritius, the Maldives, the Solomon Islands, Nepal, Philippines, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Australia, Hungary, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Columbia, Guyana, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Cameroon, Ghana, Brazil and the United States.
Journalism is practices differently around the world in many different styles.
I believe we have made an important start in adopting a core set of ethical principles that environmental journalists agree on worldwide. During the conference, the IFEJ board of directors selected Bogota, Columbia as the site of the seventh world conference, expected to be held in October 1999. The 2000 conference will be held near Cairo, Egypt. The Sri Lanka Environmental Journalists gave its International Green Pen Award to nine journalists for their contributions to environmental journalism around the globe. The journalists also discussed problems faced by environmental journalists worldwide, including censorship, intimidation and imprisonment.