News
Anti-migration propaganda is filling up Afghanistan’s airwaves, but it is effective?
| The Australian government has been criticised for spending up to A$6 million of tax payers’ money on an anti-asylum film that focuses on Afghans. The movie aired on Afghan TV and depicted the dangerous and treacherous journeys people make to only meet exploitative smugglers, deadly waters, and detention centres. The movie has received mixed reviews. The Australian government is not alone in using media campaigns to deter refugees from claiming asylum. In 2015, the German government launched a billboard campaign in Kabul to discourage Afghans fleeing to Europe. Other countries such as Austria, Denmark, and Norway have also launched campaigns against Afghan and Syrian refugees. |
Newspapers must maintain centuries-old standards to thrive says editor
| Newspapers must maintain the standards set for “hundreds of years” to thrive in future, according to a regional daily editor. Keith Harrison, who edits Wolverhampton’s Express & Star, has also called on the industry to “embrace the future” and see the changing media landscape as an opportunity, rather than a threat. |
EJN Palestine partner celebrates a decade of fighting for press freedom and media ethics
| This month (May 2016) marks the first decade since the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms-MADA started operating, and publishing its first report in 2006 about freedoms of media in Palestine. A relatively short period of time passed since the establishment of “MADA” yet this period was full of work and accomplishments, despite all obstacles and challenges, but the will of its employees, founders and board of directors to overcome it. Read the full article here. (MADA) MADA joined the EJN earlier this year. |
UK regulator shows it has backbone but defiance of Sun editor undermines self-regulation
| In one of the most high profile cases ruled on by the UK’s new self regulatory body the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) the watchdog found that a headline by the Sun claiming that the ‘QUEEN BACKS BREXIT’ (Britain leaving the European Union was ‘significantly misleading’. However, the Sun’s editor has maintained that says he was right to publish the headline. This lead to the editor of the Press Gazette to conclude that while IPSO has shown it has backbone defiance of the Sun undermines press self regulation. The ruling was also covered by iMediaEthics: ‘Queen Backs Brexit’ Headline: UK Press Regulator Rules for Queen Elizabeth for 1st time
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Donald Trump’s war on the media threatens fundamental American principles—making it crucial that responsible conservatives speak out.
| On Saturday, Donald Trump ally and confidante Roger Stone declared that CNN “is not a news organization but an advocacy group” and that “when Donald Trump is president, he should turn off their FCC license.” In any other election year, that would be news. But this cycle, Trump and his campaign have threatened the press in so many unprecedented ways that they’ve overloaded the system. The press itself can’t keep up. |
Experts Share Their Experience, Wisdom of Combating Xenophobia and Hate Speech Online
| Experts recommend promoting self-regulation in online communities, enhancing media literacy, developing tolerant speech strategies as effective tools to overcome hate speech and discrimination on the Internet. On May 12-13, the 7thCentral Asian Forum “Development of Internet Sphere in Central Asia InternetCA-2016” was held in Almaty (Kazakhstan) on the subject “Calls to Counter Destructive Content on the Internet: Xenophobia, Propaganda, Language of Intolerance”. The main topics of the discussion referred to media wars, media manipulations, hate speech, propaganda, differences between the freedom of expression and intolerance, understanding of this ways, in order to avoid the total control of the internet and pressure on freedoms. Read the full article here. (School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia) |
Why Trump’s insults of journalists must be taken seriously
| Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called the mainstream media “crooked” “unfair” “troublemakers” and The New York Times a failing, “SAD!” newspaper “full of boring lies.” Individual reporters are “liars” and “bimbos,” according to his tweets. Recently, reporter Julia Ioffe found herself at odds with the Trump campaign after she wrote a profile of the candidate’s wife, Melania Trump. Within 24 hours, she picked up her phone to a recording of a Hitler speech, part of a wave of anti-Semitic messages targeted at the journalist, whose family fled to America to escape anti-Semitism in Russia 26 years ago. Other female journalists at odds with the campaign have found themselves in the crosshairs; Trump’s insults against Megyn Kelly and Michelle Fields galvanized online trolls to send thousands of hateful and misogynistic messages, according to reports and analysis by digital news outlet Vocativ. |
Activities | |
Immigration Journalism Award
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Call for Submissions – SOTU Print Journalists Competition 2016
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Uncovering Security: Emerging Threats
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European conference marking Statewatch’s 25th anniversary
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