Cyprus Journalists Join Forces Against Hate | Debating Fake News on Al Jazeera |EJN at the Council of Europe | Meet the EJN Labour Migration Fellows
11 October 2017
CYPRUS JOURNALISTS JOIN FORCES TO BUILD BRIDGES AGAINST HATE
Journalists in Cyprus have launched a ground-breaking programme to help break an information impasse that has been in place since Turkish military action in the north led to the division of the country in 1974.
Leaders of journalists’ unions and the two media councils, responsible for self-regulation of media on both sides of the divide, met in the demilitarised buffer zone that separates the country’s Greek and Turkish-speaking communities on October 9 for a series of meetings with Harlem Désir, the recently-appointed Representative on Freedom of the Media of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The country’s two press councils and unions of journalists gave their unanimous backing to a proposal for the creation of a joint glossary of insensitive words and potentially inflammatory speech to counter stereotypes and hate speech in media reporting.
The glossary initiative will be produced in Greek, Turkish and English and the Director of the Ethical Journalism Network, Aidan White, has been asked to lend his support and edit the glossary.
On Monday the EJN's Director of Campaigns and Communications, Tom Law, appeared on Al Jazeera's flagship current affairs programme, Inside Story, to discuss whether the duopoly of Facebook and Google are doing enough to fight dangerous content on their platforms.
Yesterday the EJN addressed Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The meeting was a joint-hearing with the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media on “Migrants and the media”.
