Towards a Balanced Narrative on Migration

VIENNA, BRUSSELS and VALLETTA, Malta, January 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Ongoing study on migration reporting in Euro-Mediterranean region identifies major challenges / New media award to promote evidence-based journalism on migration

Media in many countries on both sides of the Mediterranean face major challenges when it comes to telling the migration story in context. This is the key finding of the ongoing study "How do media on both sides of the Mediterranean report on migration?" whose preliminary results will be presented in a multi-stakeholder event today in Brussels.

Euromed Migration IV, funded by the Directorate General Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the EU, commissioned the Ethical Journalism Network to conduct this study for which writers from 17 countries are examining the quality of migration media coverage in 2015/16 from a national perspective. The study covers 9 EU countries and 8 countries in the south of the Mediterranean: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Spain, Sweden as well as Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia.

The work in progress finds that journalists are often uninformed about the complex nature of the migration narrative; newsrooms are vulnerable to pressure and manipulation by voices of hate, whether from political elites or social networks. At the same time, the authors identify highlights and inspirational examples of journalism at its best -resourceful, painstaking, and marked by careful, sensitive and humanitarian reporting. A set of draft recommendations including a call for training, the funding of media action and other activities to support and foster more balanced and evidence-based journalism on migration are also part of the study.

One such activity is the EU-funded Migration Media Award for which several partners have come together on the initiative of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development ICMPD; it will be announced on 25 January under the auspices of Malta's EU presidency. The award competition is a collaboration of the EU-funded projects Euromed Migration IV and the Open Media Hub, in partnership with the European Asylum Support Office and Malta's Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Further information and contacts

Find a preliminary version of the study's summary and recommendations at http://www.icmpd.org/EMM4migration_narrative

The Migration Media Award will go online on 25 January at http://www.migration-media-award.eu

On 25 January a high-level panel from 9.00 to 10.30 and a press briefing from 10.30 to 11.00 will be webstreamed at http://www.livestream.com/brusselspressclub

In Brussels / Valletta: Sören Bauer: Soeren.Bauer@icmpd.org; +356 991 25 201

In Vienna: Bernhard Schragl, Bernhard.Schragl@icmpd.org, +43 676 714 7002