Recommendations made to media community to improve coverage of migration at a UNAOC led High Level Seminar that took place in Paris in January.
UNAOC’s High-Level Seminar on Migration Coverage convened over 35 editors in chief and migration experts from 27 countries, across Europe and the Mediterranean. Working in tandem, both the editors and migration experts put forward 17 concrete recommendations [English, French] toward more responsible media coverage of migration.
The meeting was organized in partnership with the Global Editor’s Network and hosted by the Gulbenkian Foundation. Participants included a diversity of media representatives such as the BBC (UK), El Mundo (Spain), Corriere della sera (Italy), NZZ (Switzerland), derStandard.de (Austria), Komsomolskaya Pravda (Russia), Maariv (Israel) and Al Ahram (Egypt), alongside migration experts from intergovernmental organizations, think tanks and academics from the International Organization for Migration, Sciences Po-Ceri, the Ethical Journalism Network, and the Geneva Center for Security Policy, among others.
The outcome document includes recommendations [English, French] in four areas:
- reporting on migration with a working knowledge of the topic, for instance offering journalists a media-friendly glossary
- involving migrants in migration coverage, such as employing more migrants or individuals of migrant origin in newsrooms;
- media actions, including encouraging timely publication of accurate data and use of data
- governmental and non-governmental actions involvement, for instance forging formal and informal inks between journalists and other partners.
“The UNAOC Media and Migration programs are taking a leading role in dispelling stereotypes in media coverage of migration”, said UNAOC Director Matthew Hodes.
“For institutions like the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations that sees the role of media in shaping public opinions and behaviors as crucial, it is timely to create a platform to further dialogue with media professionals on the issue of migration” said UNAOC High Representative President Jorge Sampaio during the meeting.
Discussions over the two-days led to a rich exchange of best practices and ideas on ways to strengthen the role of international organizations, establish partnerships with governmental, intergovernmental and other organizations and groups, and working with civil society and media to heighten awareness and foster responsible media coverage of migration.
Aiming at engaging a more global discussion, the UNAOC will present the recommendations [English, French] of the seminar on the occasion of its annual Forum, in February 2013 in Vienna.
For more information:
Anne Grobet, Migration Program Manager
Stephanie Durand, Strategic Media Partnerships Manager stephanied@unops.org