On January 25th over 35 editors in chief, journalists, media and migration experts from 27 countries convened in Paris for a high level seminar organized by the UNAOC Media and Migration Programs, in partnership with the Global Editor’s Network and with the support of the Gulbelkian Foundation to discuss challenges, best practices and opportunities in the media coverage of migration.
“For institutions like the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations that see 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” says UNAOC High Representative President Jorge Sampaio. “Identifying challenges and best practices in the coverage of migration will help provide opportunities to counter misrepresentation and misinformation of migrants that feed mistrust and leads to a social malaise within societies”.
Among the editors and journalists are included representatives from the BBC (UK), El Mundo (Spain), Corriere della sera (Italy), NZZ (Switzerland), derStandard.de (Austria), Komsomolskaya Pravda (Russia), Maariv (Israel) and Al Ahram (Egypt) among others.
Experts from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Ethical Journalism Network, the Panos Institute, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and the Office of the High Commissioner for High Rights among others will also intervene to conduct informative sessions around migration.
A toolkit on media coverage of migration best practices will also be produced by a group of journalism students from the University of Missouri School of Jouranlism to be released in the spring.
The UNAOC will present the recommendations of the seminar on the occasion of its annual Forum, in February 2013 in Vienna.
For more information :
Anne Grobet, Migration Program Manager anneg@unops.org
Stephanie Durand, Strategic Media Partnerships Manager stephanied@unops.org
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