Dates: 8-9 June 2017
Country: Poland, Olsztyn
More than 30 journalists, civil society activists and representatives various organisations from all over Europe participated at the second Media against Hate media literacy workshop organised by CMFE, at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland. As part of the workshop held on 8-9 June, there was a roundtable discussion dedicated to the media portrayal of Muslims.
The round table on Muslims in the Media was organised in cooperation with OSCE/ODIHR and discussed media portrayal of Muslims in Polish and European media highlighting main issues and recommendations for improvement. The roundtable was moderated by Dermana Seta, an adviser on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims at OSCE/ODIHR.
Seta’s work is crucial in supporting Muslim communities in dealing with anti-Muslim stereotypes and xenophobic public discourse, as well as in collecting good practices of community and mainstream media in promoting intercultural dialogue. The diversity of Muslim communities in Europe was highly visible and represented by various associations from the UK, Slovenia and Croatia, among others.
Gordana Knezevic, award-winning journalist who covered the siege of Sarajevo in 1992-1994 as deputy editor of Oslobođenje, and Dariusz Grzemny, expert on human rights, hate speech and discrimination, trained participants on “Freedom of expression and respect of human rights – where are the boundaries and what is hate speech?”, addressing the responsibilities of journalists in recognising hate speech and the place of freedom of expression within a human rights context.
Participants also attended a session on Community Media as spaces of inclusion, where several community media projects promoting dialogue and cohesion where presented, such as the Syrian community radio station ARTA FM.
The workshop in Olsztyn is one of three international media literacy workshops within Media against Hate project supported by the European Commission (DG Justice and Consumers) and by the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) is one of the partners gathered by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) for the project Media Against Hate. Other partners involved in the project are: Article 19, Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE), Community Media Institute (COMMIT), Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) and Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti (COSPE).