2nd June 2016
By Stefanie Chernow

Ethical Journalism Network Newsletter – 2 June 2016

News

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft sign EU hate speech code

An online “code of conduct” aimed at fighting hate speech has been launched by the European Union in conjunction with four of the world’s biggest internet companies.

Read the full article here. (The Guardian)

Newspapers generate fear over coastal migrant ‘threat’

National press, right and left, demand government action to protect Britain’s beaches from invasions of migrants organised by people traffickers.

Read full article here. (The Guardian)

Recording shows Prima ordered journalists to report negatively on refugees

Evidence has emerged that Prima TV ordered its journalists to report negatively on refugees. In a recording of an editorial meeting last year, the channel’s head of news is heard telling reporters to present asylum seekers as a threat or consider finding new jobs. The audio file was made public on Tuesday by independent news website HlídacíPes.org and has sparked a debate about journalistic ethics. I asked Hlídací Pes’s founder Robert Břešťan how he had reacted on first hearing the recording.

Read the full article here. (Radio Prague)

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet sues magazine Qué Pasa for defamation

President Michelle Bachelet is suing weekly magazine Qué Pasa for defamation (injurias and calumnias) in response to an article from the publication. The suit was confirmed on May 31 by government spokesman Marcelo Díaz who said from La Moneda, which houses the presidential offices, that Bachelet filed the complaint as a citizen, according to El Mostrador.

Read the full article here. (Knight Center)

When freelance journalists become the story….

In this new film for the Trust, some of the freelancers we’ve supported recount terrifying events that most of us find hard to imagine. Sadly, for those of us who work here, real-life stories like these have become everyday tales.

Read the full article here. (Rory Peck Trust)

The new president of the Philippines says many slain journalists deserved it

Many slain journalists in the Philippines had been corrupt and had “done something” to warrant being killed, the country’s president-elect said.

Read the full article here. (Washington Post)

Freed From Prison, Ethiopian Bloggers Still Can’t Leave The Country

Zelalem Kibret remembers the day: July 8, 2015. He was in a prison library reading a biography of Malcolm X, his own copy, when some guards called his name and handed him a piece of paper. The message: All charges against him were withdrawn. He was being released.

Read the full article here. (NPR)

How Tanzanian journalists use WhatsApp to report the news

Kiishweko is part of a growing number of Tanzanian journalists who are increasingly leveraging the popularity of WhatsApp in the country and turning it into a tool for reporting the news.

Read the full article here. (IJNet)

Opinion: political leaders and the media are destroying Europe

A few weeks ago, the Swiss research institute Media Tenor published an analysis, which showed that British broadcaster BBC, over the last 15 years, had provided more negative coverage about the EU than about Vladimir Putin.

Read the full article here. (EurActiv)

Activities

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

Click to Book now:
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 & MENA 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.