ICMPD: Media Underequipped to Cover Migration

VIENNA and VALLETTA, Malta, May 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Study on 17 countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region identifies major challenges to migration reporting / New media award promotes fact-based journalism on migration

Media in many countries on both sides of the Mediterranean are under-resourced and unable to provide the time, money and appropriate level of expertise needed to tell the migration story in context. This is the main finding of the study "How does the media on both sides of the Mediterranean report on migration?" which has been launched today.

EUROMED Migration IV, funded by the Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the EU, commissioned the Ethical Journalism Network to conduct this study for which journalists from 17 countries have examined the quality of migration media coverage in 2015/16 from a national perspective. The study covers nine EU countries: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Spain, Sweden as well as eight countries in the south of the Mediterranean: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia.

It finds that journalists are often poorly informed about the complex nature of migration as a phenomenon; newsrooms are also vulnerable to pressure and manipulation by voices of hate, whether from political elites or social networks. At the same time, the study highlights inspirational examples of journalism at its best -resourceful, painstaking, and marked by careful, sensitive and humanitarian reporting. The study also provides a series of detailed recommendations and calls for training, better funding of media action and other activities to support and foster more balanced and fact-based journalism on immigration, emigration, integration, asylum and other migration-related challenges.

One example of an activity designed to foster balanced reporting on this topic is the EU-funded Migration Media Award for which several partners have come together on the initiative of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD); over 100 applications which are currently being evaluated were received for its first edition. The winning entries will be announced before the end of May and an awards ceremony will be held on 14 June in Malta, under the auspices of Malta's EU presidency. The award is a collaboration of the EU-funded EUROMED Migration IV and Open Media Hub projects, in partnership with the European Asylum Support Office and Malta's Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Further information and contacts

Find the entire study and 17 country chapters at www.icmpd.org/EMM4migration_narrative

The Migration Media Award is online at www.migration-media-award.eu

In Valletta: Sören Bauer: [email protected]; +356-991-25-201

In Vienna: Bernhard Schragl, [email protected], +43-676-714-7002

SOURCE International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD)