MIGRANTS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Objective: To contribute to improved understanding, awareness and reporting on migration issues, third country nationals, integration and related topics among media and students of journalism, including immigrants themselves, in order to facilitate more effective and accurate reporting on migration issues in Hungary, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.   Duration: 14 month (1 November 2010 – 31 December 2011).   Project website: www.mits-eu.org

Activities:

- Twelve training seminars (two in each participating country) were organized. The aim of these seminars was to train media professionals, including members of the immigrants’ media channels, and journalism students on how to accurately and effectively portray migration issues.

- IOM Vilnius office and the Institute of Journalism (University of Vilnius) hosted 4 interns (2 in each organization) for a three months internship to allow young people a possibility to see how media and migration organizations work.

- An international conference, titled “Promoting Migrant Integration through Media and Intercultural Dialogue”, has been organized at 16-18 May 2011 in Budapest. The conference aimed to discuss and analyze current practices in media reporting on migration in Europe and put forward recommendations on how media can better portray diversity in the EU and make its own contribution to better integration.

- An international competition was organized for students of media and social sciences from the participating countries, for the best article and documentary on a migration-related issue. The award-winning works were presented at the Media and Migration international conference with the winners invited to attend. In addition, the winning work was promoted through IOM and project partner publications and websites and highlighted in local media.

Through these activities, the project achieves more diverse, responsible media coverage on immigration and increased understanding of migration issues by the general public.

The project was funded by the European Commission through the European Integration Fund. Cofunding was provided by the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, as associate partner, Soros Foundation (Romania), Centre for Independent Journalism (Hungary) and Milan Simecka Foundation (Slovakia).

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