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Giving voice to the voiceless - Public Lecture Series

Portrayal and participation of asylum-seekers & refugees in the UK media

The Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging & the Exiled Journalists' Network introducing Mike Jempson Director, The MediaWise Trust

Date: Thursday 4 March 2010
Time: 17:00
Venue: Room TBC, University of East London, Docklands Campus
Transport: Cyprus DLR

In the mid-1990s, there was an upsurge in hostile and inaccurate coverage of refugee and asylum issues, and of those who supported them. The term asylum-seeker rapidly changed from being a sympathetic description to a form of abuse which combined fear and loathing of immigrants and more than a hint of racism.

Sensational stories and statistics, and xenophobic commentaries, variously represented those seeking asylum as economic migrants or criminals determined to abuse the goodwill of a post-colonial power. Such stories increased tabloid circulation and jolted politicians into knee-jerk negative reactions. By the time of the al Qaeda attack on the USA in 2001, asylum had become a major political issue. Now people identifiable as ‘strangers in our midst’ were regarded as menacing and dangerous, however long they had been in the UK.

Concerned that sensible political dialogue and human rights were being harmed by the way the media were handling issue, in 1999 the journalism ethics charity MediaWise set up the Refugees, Asylum-seekers and the Media (RAM) Project. It was a strategic initiative to challenge inaccuracies and prejudice and improve media coverage. It would also give birth to the Exiled Journalists’ Network (EJN).

This presentation will explain the work and achievements of the RAM Project revisit some of the more sensational inaccuracies that have appeared in the UK media, and explain how exiled journalists helped to develop the RAM Project, and took it forward to become the EJN.

MIKE JEMPSON has been Director of The MediaWise Trust since 1996. He co-founded the journalism ethics charity (then known as PressWise) with ‘survivors of media abuse’ in 1993. He is a journalist, author and trainer, with over 35 years experience in print, broadcasting and public relations. Mike co-authored The RAM Report (MediaWise, June 2005, ISBN 0 9547620 4 5)

Mike was appointed Visiting Professor in Media Ethics at Lincoln University in 2006, and is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the University of the West of England. He has devised and delivered training for journalists and NGOs in more than 40 countries, working with UN agencies and the International Federation of Journalists.

10 February 2010