On Thursday 9 June, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, ECPMF organised a press briefing and debate on The truth about refugees – crisis, cover-up and the impact on media freedom
With panelists :
Balázs Nagy Navarro, Hungary, prize-winning journalist and media freedom advocate, Chair of the ECPMF Supervisory Board
Ljiljana Smailović, Serbia, editor-in-chief of Politika in Belgrade and President of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia
Dr. George Pleios, Greece, Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Social Research in Mass Media at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
Chiara Sighele, Italy, Project Director of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, a think tank focusing on South-East Europe, Turkey and the Caucasus
Ola Aljari, journalist and refugee from Syria now living in Germany
The refugee issue has been and is still dominating Europe’s media. Reporting is torn between emotional, subjective appeals and the paraphrasing of state propaganda. This humanitarian crisis also puts media under pressure in many ways: biased reporting – for and against refugees – has led to increasing distrust in the media. On the other hand, journalists in many countries are violently attacked and held back from reporting on refugees.
On 9 June 2016, the European Centre for Media Freedom discusses the current role of journalists and media in society with various experts from the European media sphere as well as with refugees. The Centre will report from its fact-finding missions in Greece, Serbia/Hungary and Germany, speak about violations of media freedom along the “Balkan route” and present the “Idomeni Charter” and the ECPMF’s “Appeal to the journalists of Europe”, two documents which call for ethical and responsible reporting on refugees.