Date: 21 March 2017
Region: Europe
The Media against Hate campaign invited professional journalists, community media practitioners and media students in Europe to document how their daily work helps fight against discrimination and counter hate. On the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 21 March, the “Favourite 5” videos were announced.
The Media against Hate jury including Giulia Dessi from the Media Diversity Institute, said that “it was difficult to choose, as contest entries demonstrated countering hate and discrimination from a variety of well-informed and relevant perspectives”. The selected “Favourite 5” videos are:
- Stereotypes by Theofanis Kollias, Solomon
- I am a humanist. Hate is not for me by academics and students from the Faculty of Humanities (University of Warmia and Mazury)
- Amir by Francesco Conte, Termini TV
- Okto goes loud by Melanie Schiller, Okto Community TV
- Najib by Michal Majzner with Refugee stories / We Can / Umweltzentrum Dresden
Solomon is a group of people with different backgrounds that, through media, aim to promote an alternative perspective of the local community. The core team consists of talented people who live in Athens, Greece and originate from many countries. One of their projects is the Inclumedia Lab, where tandems of im/migrants who are willing to become journalists or used to work as journalists in their home countries pair up with local students of journalism.
The video “I am a humanist. Hate is not for me” was produced by a group of students of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Warmia and Mazury, in Olsztyn, Poland. The students of the Department are studying history, philosophy, journalism, philology or international relations and are thus called “humanists”.
Termini TV is “the only online channel in the world specialized in narrating life stories from train stations”. They explore the edge between travel and migration, travelers and migrants. Francesco Conte is also one of the mentors of the Council of Europe Div-A Diversity Accelerator project.
Okto.tv is Vienna’s community television station, training over 1000 volunteers yearly as video journalists, moderators and studio producers, and engaged for an inclusive and intercultural society.
Michal Majzner is an industrial project engineer and civic activist. He has co-founded several volunteer initiatives, including Prague Maidan, “President, leave!” and Refugee Stories (“Příběhy uprchlíků”). Refugee stories records refugees’ stories for a Czech audience, through volunteer visits to nearby Dresden. The core of the project is built upon the We Can organisation, in cooperation with Umweltzentrum Dresden.
Two more videos received an “honourable mention” for the educational intent of the producers (Vincenzo Agosto and Gustavo Gomez).
The producers of the “Favourite 5” videos will be invited to participate to the Media against Hate workshops in 2017 and to the final conference in March 2018 – where they will meet the members of jury.