Published: 14 October 2011
Region: Europe
By Elena Borghi
Press monitoring units that will help combat media stereotypes in reporting of minority and diversity issues are to be established in a number of European countries participants at a conference in Mantua, Italy, were told last week.
The October 6 conference, organised in the context of the project In Other Words, which is partly funded by the European Commission and supported by the Italian provincial authority of Mantua, heard that the proposal draws upon the experience of the Italian Observatory on Discrimination. The project will develop a network for monitoring press coverage and a system for reacting with partners in a number of European countries — Spain (with the partnership of Diputaciòn Provincial de Jaen and Fundaciòn Almeria Social y Laboral), France (Eurocircle), Romania (Intercultural Institute of Timisoara), Estonia (Tallin University), and Portugal (IEBA).
The project responds to a current tendency across Europe where media sometime act as vehicles for stereotypes that may encourage discrimination and racism. The media monitoring units will be made up of people belonging to minority groups as well as representatives of the majority community. They will monitor media portrayal of minorities and will engage in activities to challenge stereotypes by encouraging constructive dialogue with media professionals.
The conference coincided with the second partners meeting and discussed how media portray various minority groups with expert speakers from different community backgrounds.
The meeting began with a discussion on Politics and Practices against Discrimination led by Udo Enweruzor (Cospe), Rosita D’Angiolella, magistrate of the national Office against racial discrimination (UNAR) and Verica Rupar, lecturer at Cardiff School of Journalism and researcher at Media Diversity Institute.
Later representatives and activists of several minority groups associations took the floor. Eva Rizzin, researcher at the Italian Articolo 3, the Italian observatory, presented an analysis of press representation of Roma and Sinti people in Italy; Davide Provenzano, President of Arcigay “La salamandra”, discussed the media image of gay and lesbian people, while Porpora Marcasciano, President of the Trans Identity Movement (MIT), and Mostafa El Ayoubi, deputy editor of Italian journal Confronti, talked about representation of transgender people and religious minority groups.
The conference was a focused effort to share with the public the importance of the role of media in fostering diversity and spreading an accurate and honest perception of the minorities.