19th January 2016
By Stefanie Chernow

Ethical Journalism Network Newsletter – 21 January 2016

News

Bigotry on the Air: Why Broadcasters Need to Challenge Hate-Mongers

In 2015 hate-speech became a mainstream concern for news media. Violent propaganda from media-savvy terrorists, loose language from populist politicians and bigoted journalism from the likes of Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins over the migration and refugee crisis have all put journalists and editors on their guard. In today’s digital environment everyone can have their say but very often the discourse is poisoned by hate and intolerance.

Our communications officer, Tom Law, has written about hate speech on the radio as part of the Media Diversity Institute‘s Get The Trolls Out project.

Read the full article here. (EJN)

Is Poland being ‘Putinised’?

Poland has a newly elected populist socially conservative government, but the EU is questioning whether the new administration is conforming to the rule of law. The President of the European parliament has described the situation as “a dangerous Putinisation of European politics”.

Watch the video here. (BBC Newsnight)

Blurred Lines: Journalism or Activism?

The lines are blurring when it comes to journalism, social media, activism and everything in between.

Read the full article here. (Huff Post)

Two Milestones Put Romani Cultural Discourse in the Hands of Roma Themselves

There is reason to hold much hope for the Roma movement in 2016 and beyond. Roma artists, academics, media producers, and activists are ready to lead the way to Roma intellectual emancipation.

Read the full article here. (Open Society)

Migrant Photographer Leila Alaoui Dies from Injuries

French-Moroccan photographer and video artist Leila Alaoui has died from injuries sustained during the jihadist attacks on the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on January 15th. She was in Burkina Faso on an assignment for Amnesty International.

Read the full article here. (IOM)

Here’s Why We Held The Story On The U.S.-Iranian Prisoner Exchange

In early fall, HuffPost foreign affairs reporter Jessica Schulberg landed a hell of a scoop: A State Department official was willing to talk on the record about the most sensitive of diplomatic operations — secret negotiations between the U.S. and Iranian governments over exchanging prisoners.

Read the full article here. (Huff Post)

Crime in Mexico From Penn to pen

Sean Penn’s gonzo journalism was tequila-lubricated, covert, glamorous. Was it ethical?

Read the full article here. (Economist)

Crowdfunded Journalism: A Small but Growing Addition to Publicly Driven Journalism

Over the past several years, crowdfunding via the internet has become a popular way to engage public support – and financial backing – for all kinds of projects, from the Coolest Cooler to a virtual reality gaming headset to a prototype of a sailing spacecraft and a bailout fund for Greece. The area of journalism is no exception.

Read the full article here. (Pew Research Centre)

What the global open data index shows about Africa

What open data is available from governments around the world, in what formats are the data available, and how can you easily find or use it?

Read the full article here. (IJNET)

Tanzania’s new reform-minded government has banned a tabloid for “inflammatory” journalism

Recently-elected Tanzanian president John Magufuli has garnered regional praise for his reformist proposals aimed at rooting out government corruption and incompetence. But his administration is facing its first real test of that agenda following a decision to ban a tabloid for producing journalism it says could threaten the country’s stability.

Read the full article here. (Quartz)

Materials

MOVING STORIES – INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF HOW MEDIA COVER MIGRATION

You can read the individual chapters of the report here:

The View from Brussels: Missed opportunities to call the European Union to account

Bulgaria – A study in media Sensationalism

Italy – A charter for tolerant journalism: Media take centre stage in the Mediterranean drama

Turkey – Media under the government’s thumb and migrants in a legislative limbo

United Kingdom – How journalism plays follow-my-leader in the rhetoric of negativity

Australia – In a nation of migrants the media faces its own identity crisis

Brazil – Where politics takes precedence over the people who make it

China – An inside story: China’s invisible and ignored migrant workforce

West Africa: The Gambia – Desperate young take the backway to an uncertain future

India – How missing facts and context is toxic for media coverage

Lebanon – Lebanon’s media put humanity in the mix as the refugee crisis takes hold

Mexico – Shallow journalism in a land where political bias rules the newsroom

Nepal – Information gaps fail to keep track of a country on the move

South Africa – Compelling tales of afrophobia and media selective blindness

United States – The Trump Card: How US news media dealt with a migrant hate manifesto

The EJN Year in Focus: Terrorism, Hate-speech, the Refugee Crisis, and Looking Forward to 2016

It has been a testing year for journalism. It began with 10 journalists and cartoonists among those killed by terrorists in the unconscionable massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Within hours the EJN published an article advising journalists to defend free speech but also to lower the temperature, to eliminate hate speech and to avoid encouraging acts of revenge or abuse of Muslims. We called for “slow journalism” and for newsrooms to think carefully about how to handle the story.

The Paris events triggered much talk in media circles over free speech, self-censorship and ethical responsibility. And the EJN was at the centre of this debate. We published a second article urging journalists to rely on their codes and editorial traditions when reporting terrorism, to avoid propaganda traps set by media-savvy extremists and, above all, to tell the story with humanity.

Read the EJN director’s full report here.

Activities

Elections Reporting in the Philippines

Thomson Reuters Foundation is supporting a group of election reporters from the Philippines to provide fair, balanced, accurate and timely coverage of their country’s upcoming elections in 2016.

To apply to be part of the training click on this link. (Deadline February 8, 2016)