Helping the Media to reflect a Much
wider Audience
October 2007
At the very beginning of October,
members of the European Broadcasting Union's Intercultural and Diversity Group
and representatives of certain EQUAL Development Partnerships spent a very
constructive two days in Budapest, putting the final touches to a Diversity
Toolkit. There was also time to review the arrangement for the launch of this
resource and to exchange new ideas about promoting diversity in the media.
An eloquent explanation of the reasons
behind the development of a Diversity Toolkit for the Media is provided by Fritz
Pleitgen, the President of the European
Broadcasting Union (EBU) and also, until March 2007, the Director General of
the German broadcaster
WDR. He believes that, "events like the disturbances in the French
suburbs, the Danish cartoon row and terrorist attacks in several European
countries are clear warning signals showing us that integration, equal rights
and a peaceful dialogue between cultures do not happen automatically. We must
all actively promote dialogue and mutual acceptance. The media, and in
particular public service broadcasting corporations, have a really important
contribution to make."
Over the last 10 years, a number of
professionals from European public service broadcasting corporations who work
with, and for, cultural and ethnic minorities have met regularly under the
auspices of the Intercultural and Diversity Group (IDG). This enabled them to
exchange ideas and successes and plan co-productions. In addition, a
number of EQUAL Development Partnerships (DPs) had been pioneering new
developments in using the media to combat discrimination during the 2000 - 2006
operational period of this Community Initiative.
There had been some exchanges between these DPs and the EBU
but then early in 2006, the European Commission outlined its proposals to
promote the best of EQUAL good practices though a series of European level
mainstreaming platforms. This provided the opportunity to launch a concerted
attempt to capitalise on the approaches of EQUAL media projects and broadcasting
companies in promoting diversity. A media platform was established and it is
this platform that has developed the Diversity Toolkit through a series of four
seminars organised by the Swedish ESF Council and financed by EQUAL. The format
of the Toolkit really took shape at the
third of these meetingss which was held in Barcelona, in early 2007.
Getting it right
One viewing panel deciding which clips to include
The Toolkit concentrates on the representation of ethnic
and cultural minorities and especially their portrayal in news and current
affairs programmes. It is aimed first and foremost at journalists and teachers
and students of journalism but it also provides useful information for producers
and programme makers, as well as HR departments and the management of
broadcasting organisations.
After Barcelona, Lynne Polak, who
has had a long association with EBU in coordinating the activities and
co-productions of the IDG, worked extremely hard to put the first draft of the
Toolkit together in time for the Budapest meeting. In, fact all of the first day
of the meeting was spent poring over the text and suggesting amendments to make
the Toolkit as clear and unambiguous as possible because initially, an English
version will be produced and the majority of users will have to read it their
second or third language.
The selection of additional film clips to be included in
the kit. was another aspect to be tackled during these
sessions at the European Youth Centre
Budapest (EYCB). The intention of these short excerpts is to demonstrate
both good and bad practices. In this way, it is hoped to challenge the
preconceptions and assumptions of the users and to help them to think more
deeply about the representation of ethnic minorities and the reporting of issues
that concern such groupings.
Swapping insights and initiatives
The former Hungarian stock exchange, which is now home to MTV
Apart from the discussion on the Toolkit, another regular
feature of these seminars is the master class. This time the master class took
place on the second day which was hosted by Magyar
Televízió (MTV). The first topic to be tackled was Roma and the participants
heard from Kata Bársony about the Romédia activities of an organisation called
Mundi Romani. Then, Judit Klein from MTV explained how, with a signed agreement
between her company and the Hungarian Ministry of Social Affairs and Equality,
it had been possible to hire and train five young Roma people during each of the
last two years. Finally, Lajos Puporka of the
Equal Opportunities in the Media DP in Budapest outlined how this project
had trained 35 disadvantaged, but mainly Roma, people as media professionals and
he also explained his hopes for the creation of a European Roma Television
Network.
Then the focus switched to England and to English regions
in particular. Elonka Soros, Diversity Editor, gave a very interesting and
comprehensive explanation about how these
BBC regions were promoting diversity
through nominating diversity champions in each broadcasting hub, organising a
range of outreach activities and incorporating a strong emphasis on diversity in
their management and monitoring procedures.
Another important contribution was made by Marc Gruber who
outlined the activities of both the
European
Federation of Journalists and the
International Federation of Journalists. He also introduced a recent paper
on the Ethical Journalism
Initiative, which is a new programme that aims to raise awareness amongst
journalists about the challenges they face in reporting from within an
increasingly polarised world.
Producing and promoting in partnership
In keeping with the EQUAL principle of partnership, a
numbers of individuals and organisations will be involved in these processes. To
produce the Toolkit, the Marketing Department of
TV3 - Televisió de
Catalunya will be responsible for the graphic design while the European Union Agency for
Fundamental Rights (FRA) will arrange the printing of the text.
The "première" of the Diversity Toolkit will be at an
international conference organised by
France
Télévisions and
UNESCO in cooperation with WDR,
ZDF and EBU. The title of the conference
is: "Diversité/Intégration: Rôle majeur pour les medias et défi pour les
audiovisuels public en Europe" (Diversity/Integration: A major role for the
media and a challenge for public broadcasters in Europe).
"To safeguard the future independence of media,
it is vital to create editorial teams whose compositions guarantee different
perspectives on issues and opinions and particularly those that relate to ethnic
or cultural minorities," says
Frans Jennekens, the Chair
of the IDG who will launch the Toolkit at this event. Then, Frans adds,
"I hope that the Diversity Toolkit will contribute to this process, as it can
help media professionals become more aware of their own prejudices and initiate
a discussion on the veracity of the information that they relay and, perhaps
more importantly, on the impact of the images that they portray."
At
another event in Paris, on the same day,
Jacob Schulze who has coordinated the work of the Media Platform will present
the Toolkit to an EQUAL Policy Forum
on the topic of "Action against Ethnic Discrimination in the Workplace.
Finally, Johannes Wikman from the Swedish ESF Council will introduce the Toolkit
to his peers in other national missions, at the ESF Management Committee to be
held in Brussels on the very next day, 24 November.
From the beginning of December, the Toolkit will be downloadable from the
European Broadcasting Union, the
European
Federation of Journalists and the
International Federation of Journalists web sites. This information might be
of particular interest to all those organisations that have been involved in
EQUAL, as whilst the Toolkit has been produced for the world of media, it will
also be very useful for a range of projects that would like to work with
broadcasters to promote the involvement of minority or diverse groupings.
Top
News