13th June 2016
By Stefanie Chernow

Ethical Journalism Network Newsletter – 14 May 2016

News

In Turkey bombings, media bans ‘arrive before ambulances’

Well before police could establish who was responsible for a car bombing in Istanbul that killed 11 [last] week, the government in Turkey had banned the media from reporting anything about the investigation. Bans have been implemented after such incidents since 2013 and have become so routine that some joke on Twitter that the ban arrives before the ambulance — but they’re part of what free-speech advocates say is an increasingly concerning pattern of restricting news coverage in Turkey. Violating the ban leaves local news channels vulnerable to fines and possible prosecution.

Read the full article here. (Associated Press)

The role of climate change in the Syria crisis: how the media got it wrong

Last year, the media started joining the dots between the crisis in Syria and climate change. But they only got half the story right. They badly misrepresented the role of social movements in Syria; and they painted Syrian migrants as a source of violence and chaos. Most reporting ignored the complex relationship between climate, drought, migration and conflict. Research by the Climate and Migration Coalition reveals a disconnect between what the media claimed and what actually happened.

Read the full article here. (New Internationalist)

South Sudan: New Nation, Long War

“We Can Assassinate You at Any Time” — Journalists Face Abduction and Murder in South Sudan

Read the full article here. (The Intercept)

The Sting: Good Journalism, Bad Journalism?

Are Stings good journalism, or bad journalism? Or are they journalism at all?

Read the full article here. (The Citizen India)

Indian government accused of curbing press freedom through new advertising policy

India’s opposition has accused the government of muzzling the press freedom under a new Advertisement Policy and called for the law to be either scrapped or reviewed.
Read the full article here. (Daily Excelsior)

Australia: Press council on notice over freedom

Comment writer for The Australian, Chris Mitchell, on the “gulf between journalism and journalism education” widening since he studied journalism in the early 1970s. He argues that there is no a “veneer of intellectualism cloaks what was once an up-market trades course” and discusses the state of press freedom and self-regulation in Australia.

Read the full article here. (The Australian)

Matthew Ricketson pushes for tougher press regulation

Matthew Ricketson, the journalists union’s representative on the Australian Press Council, has suggested introducing a new, tougher process of press regulation with enhanced powers in a chilling echo of draconian ­measures proposed during the Gillard era.

Read the full article here. (The Australian)

Click’d: Local Facebook page raises concerns about refugees without getting ugly

Comment piece by Jim Sabatas:

Last week I explored the uglier side of the Rutland’s refugee debate. I understandably struck a nerve among those who felt I had unfairly characterized all people opposed to the issue as bigots by calling out the bigotry I discovered on the two local Facebook groups, Don’t Refugee Rutland and Opposed to Rutland Refugees. Let’s get something straight. Much of what I found on those pages was the definition of bigotry — treating members of a racial or ethnic group with hatred or intolerance. This type of language isn’t “real talk” or “telling it like it is” or any other slippery euphemism people like to use to justify their prejudices. It was blatant, irrational Islamophobia. By calling it out, I was not shutting down the conversation or stifling anyone’s freedom to speech. I never said people can’t say these things. In fact, I explicitly acknowledged that freedom.

Read the full article here. (The Rutland Herald)

Offshore and off limits: Australia’s refugee centres

For four years now, Australia has been sending a message out to the world: “If you come to Australia illegally by boat, there is no way you will make Australia home.”

The refugees who cannot be turned or towed back are taken into custody. Since the so-called processing centres on the islands of Manus and Nauru opened in 2012, nearly 2,000 people have been held there and only 60 have made it out.

In those four years, not a single journalist has made it in.

Read the full article here. (Al Jazeera)

EJN adviser appointed new President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Thomas Kent, a longtime Associated Press journalist, has been appointed the new President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), effective June 27.

Read the full article here. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Gawker’s Bankruptcy Is How a Free Press Dies, One VC at a Time

Wired’s Marcus Wohlsen on Gawker’s bankruptcy after billionaire PayPal co-founder and Facebook investor, Peter Thiel, financially backed numerous legal actions against the new website after it revealed he was gay in 2007.

Read the full article here. (WIRED)

Activities

Global Editors Network Summit – Building Trust in the Digital Newsroom – 15 – 17 June 2016

The Ethical Journalism Network is organising a round table discussion on Thursday 16 June at 18:00 – 18:30 during the Global Editors Network Summit to debate how media can build trust in the digital newsroom.

Read more here.

Final chance to enter the Online Journalism Awards!

The extended deadline for this year’s Online Journalism Awards is this Friday, June 10, at 11:59 pm ET. The winners will be announced at the Online News Association Conference (ONA16), on 17 September 2016 in Denver.

Read the full article here. (ONA)

European Conference Marking Statewatch’s 25th Anniversary- Civil Liberties, the State, and the European Union

10:00 – 17:00, Saturday 25 June 2016

Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 (map)

For 25 years Statewatch has been working to publish and promote investigative journalism and critical research in Europe in the fields of the state, justice and home affairs, civil liberties, accountability and openness. We invite you to join us in London on 25 June 2016 at our Conference where there will be:

Workshops and discussions on the refugee crisis in the Med and in the EU; mass surveillance; the EU’s crisis of legitimacy and accountability; the policing of protest and criminalisation of communities; racism, xenophobia and the far right; strategies of resistance and the defence of civil liberties.

PROGRAMME: PDF

http://statewatch.org/conference/

European Media Coverage of the Refugee Question- Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMED)

As part of the Institute of the Mediterranean’s series of conferences on Migration around the Mediterranean, the Ethical Journalism Network’s Advisor, Jean-Paul Marthoz, the EU Correspondent for the Committee to Protect Journalists, will be attending a roundtable on the European Media coverage of the Refugee question in Barcelona on 20 June 2016. The roundtable discussing will include an exploration of the Ethical Journalism Network’s recent report: Moving Stories – International Review of How Media Cover Migration. The debate will focus on how the refugee issue has been approached from the different European countries, what the dominant narratives are, what are the ethical considerations media professionals need to have when dealing with refugees, and how media professionals have coped with the situation. Journalists who have experience of covering migration will also be taking part.

Read more information about the event here.

Second European Media and Information Literacy Forum

The Ethical Journalism Network’s director, Aidan White, will be participating at the Second European Media and Information Literacy Forum in Riga, Latvia from 27 June 2016 – 29 June 2016. Watch the EJN’s Director, Aidan White, speaking at the first event in the series in Brussels here.

Read more information about the event here.

EJN Participating in Inaugural Aegean Summit in Athens, Greece- Creating an Annual Meeting Point for Independent Media Startups & Journalists: Europe, Mediterranean, & MEAN Cross-Border Collaboration

The Ethical Journalism Network’s director, Aidan White, will be speaking at the inaugural Aegean Summit in Athens on July 1st. The event hopes to become a forum for new and independent media in the Euro-Mediterranean & MENA with international speakers and participants.

The EJN will be participating in the session on the second day of the summit focusing on how migration & refugee crisis is being covered in the region’s media, referring to the findings from the EJN’s Moving Stories report on how media cover migration. The session will also explore how to work collaboratively to improve media literacy, responsible communications, tackle hate speech & intolerance, and strengthen self-regulation of independent media.

Read more about the event here.