Shahidul Alam – A courageous journalists who exemplifies why we must defend press freedom + Our round-up of global media ethics news.
17 August 2018
Shahidul Alam – A courageous journalists who exemplifies why we must defend press freedom
“I have always understood that the role of photographers and journalists are critical in winning hearts, minds and raising money for good causes. Of all the amazing photojournalists I have worked with over three decades Shahidul Alam has stood out for his absolute dedication, his generosity, his humility, his passion and his absolute brilliance as a photographer and journalist.” - Lyndall Stein
Human rights campaigner Lyndall Stein calls for the release of journalist and photographer, Shahidul Alam, who has been held by Bangladeshi authorities since 5 August after he gave an interview to Al Jazeera about recent street protests. Stein, who has known Alam since the early 90’s, describes him as “a powerful courageous figure who exemplifies why we must defend freedom of the press.”
Migration reporting must provide solutions:Powerful, emotional testimony is not enough
Focus on the positive while not ignoring the negative when reporting on migration, is a key message from Aidan White, the President of the EJN, who has been judging entries to this years EU-funded Migration Media Awards.
“Well-written, powerful and emotional testimony from victims is not enough for journalism to tell stories effectively and ethically. Revealing the horrors of the crisis is important. But when we do so, we should think about what we can do to make a difference,” White says.
Over the last two years the EJN has also been working with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to address discriminatory attitudes and actions towards migrant workers by improving reporting on rights of migrant workers and solutions journalismthrough a fellowship scheme for 20 journalists working in the Gulf region, as well as Jordan and Lebanon.
A good example of solutions journalism about migration came last week when one of the fellows, Laura Secorun Palet, had a op-ed published in the New York Times which addressed not only the legal and logistical reforms needed to improve the rights of migrant workers but made it clear that “to eradicate forced domestic labor, we must confront the rampant prejudice behind it.”
This week Dr. Zahera Harb, a board member of the Ethical Journalism Network and Senior Lecturer in International Journalism at City, University of London, spoke at the Public Media Alliance's annual conference in Jamaica.
Harb spoke on a panel exploring how to maintain and support high standards of journalism in the digital era. The discussion was chaired by Wesley Gibbings, Vice President of the Media Institute of the Caribbean with the keynote delivered by Fran Unsworth, Head of News at the BBC. The other members of the panel were Mark Bassant, Investigative Journalist CCN TV6 Trinidad and Naja Nielsen, Chief Journalism Officer, ORB media.
Harb told the conference that: “Not repeating and sharing hate speech is not censorship, it’s responsible journalism”. Summarising her speech on Twitter, Harb added: "Fake news can generate hate speech. Hateful expression can be also by omission. Language and contextual relevance matter in combatting hate speech."
An Action Plan to Address Hate Speech and Improve Coverage of Terrorism and Violence for Caribbean Media
Before the conference began, Harb collaborated with the Public Media Alliance and UNESCO to work with Caribbean media media leaders to create a 10-point regional action plan to address hate speech and improve coverage of terrorism and violence.
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR BLOG
Cyprus: Journalism in the Crosshairs of Silly Season: In Cyprus, with the silly season in full swing, it’s journalism itself which is making headlines. EJN President, Aidan White, writes that a faux-controversy has been generated over an effort by journalists to promote a discussion within newsrooms on both sides of the island about the words and phrases they use in their reporting.
Refugee crisis: the immediate and lasting impacts of powerful images: Recent images and footage of migrant children housed in wire cages near the United States’ southern border have fuelled global outrage. Apart from driving policy in the short term, do confronting images create change in public perception and willingness to act in relation to refugee issues?
Scroll down for our summary of global media ethics news.
- The Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2018 is open! The competition is dedicated to finding and inspiring young, ambitious journalists from across the globe. Three finalists will be flown to London to attend a gala awards night. Enter by 17 August. Apply here.
- For journalists working on child care issues in the US: Thomson Reuters Foundation hosting a event on strategies to protect vulnerable children + reporting these issues to audiences. Apply here.
- Democracy is cracking and platforms are no help. What can we do about it? Some policy suggestions (Nieman Lab)
PLATFORMS & SOCIAL MEDIA
- Major internet companies might want to push their own point of view, but can they also take care of misinformation please and thank you. (Nieman Lab)
- How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump (MIT Technology Review)
- ‘The duopoly are middlemen’: How publishers are building sustainable subscription models (DIGIDAY) - Why we shouldn’t take Jack Dorsey seriously (CJR)
- A Guide To Big Tech's Infowars Fiasco (BuzzFeed)
SCIENCE JOURNALISM
- Fake Science: Face behind biggest of all — ‘40 countries, million articles’ (Indian Express)
HEALTH
- How media coverage of epidemics helps raise anxiety and reduce trust (Nieman Lab)
MIGRATION
- Media outlets from the Americas collaborate and crowdsource to cover migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border (Knight Centre)
MEDIA DIVERSITY
- Mind the gap: Uncovering pay disparity in the newsroom (Voices)
GLOBAL ETHICS NEWS
AFRICA
- How to cite Africa Check’s research (Africa Check) - Nigerian journalist jailed for refusing to reveal source (CPJ)
AUSTRALIA: Imran Khan must restore press freedom in Pakistan (IPI) CHINA: Google staff protest against plan for censored Chinese search engine (Guardian) MALAYSIA: Malaysia scraps 'fake news' law used to stifle free speech (Guardian)
EUROPE
FINLAND: How Finland’s Yle combats online harassment (IPI) TURKEY: Turkey is blaming social media and ‘fabricated news’ for the collapse of its currency (Business Insider) TURKEY: WhatsApp groups: Another side to censorship in Turkey (IPI) UK: Sun says it 'will not be silenced' by Sir Cliff privacy ruling and will 'accept consequences in court' of reporting police probes (Press Gazette)
MIDDLE EAST
ISRAEL / PALESTINE: Will a new wave of Israeli legislation diminish internet freedoms? (7amleh)
EJN ANNUAL REPORT 2017/2018
The Ethical Journalism Network Annual Report for 2017 and the first months of 2018 covers a period in which the buzzwords “fake news” and “post-truth” provided a misleading but appropriate focus for the news industry.
In recent months the challenges of a flawed information landscape have been dramatically exposed with Google, Facebook and other internet giants being called to account for their failure to promptly deal with the pollution of the information landscape.
The EJN's Trust in Ethical Journalism reports looks at how the communications revolution is continuing to pose more questions than answers over a public crisis of confidence, both in democracy and in sources of public information.
Can 2018 be the year when ethical journalism, a human instinct beyond encoding and algorithmic definition, finally gets the recognition it deserves?
In May the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) published guidelines on Media and Trafficking in Human Beingsauthored by the Ethical Journalism Network's Aidan White.
After a screening of 'Another News Story' the Chair of the Ethical Journalism Network, Dorothy Byrne, who is the Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, moderated a discussion with director / producer Orban Wallace, producer Verity Wislocki, and forced migration researcher Ahmad al-Rashid. You can also listen to the event as a podcast.
Watch the EJN's Tom Law talk about how a fake news story triggered a major geo-political crisis in May last year and the effects are still being felt across the Gulf nations on Al Jazeera's Inside Story.