EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR DEMOCRACY THROUGH
LAW
(VENICE COMMISSION)
UNIDEM
Campus trieste seminar
“POLICIES ON THE
PROTECTION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION
OF IMMIGRANTS AND
THEIR IMPLEMENTATION
AT THE
INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL AND LOCAL LEVEL”
Trieste, Italy
29 June – 2 July 2009
|
REPORT
COMMUNICATING ON RACISM AND RACIAL
DISCRIMINATION:
DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
by
Mr Reynald BLION
(Media & Diversity Manager,
Speak out against Discrimination Campaign, Council of Europe, Strasbourg,
France)
1. “Developing a comprehensive
communication strategy” on racism and racial discrimination can’t
considered without referring to the more global objective of social integration
of all population groups living in a same society and of social cohesion
between all of them.
2. But the understanding, and
certainly the misunderstanding, of the meaning of communication is a first
preliminary to be considered. One major challenge regarding the development of
a communication strategy is to avoid a global and persistent confusion which
exists between information and communication. Information could be considered
as the “output” of an industry – the media – produced by their professionals –
the journalists – and based on a way of treatment – the editorial line – of the
media delivering this information. Communication consists of another “output”
produced also by an industry/sector – the communication agencies – and their
professionals (communicators, advertisers…) based on a very targeted and clear
message, generally simple, that could be delivered by the media, or other
means, without any media editorial input. In this sense, information strategy
and communication strategy are based on very different approaches. They clearly
aim to achieve different goals and impact on the groups of public their
products (news or ads, by example) want to reach. This difference between
communication and information does not mean they are contradictory. They could
be used through a complementary understanding of their respective input. For
example, a national antidiscrimination body communication strategy could
consist of targeting the victims of discrimination to make them aware of the
existing mechanisms of defence and protection of their rights. The same body
information strategy should be able to deliver regular facts and data on racism
and discrimination to be used by the media and their professionals in order to
inform the public, to form the opinion and thus to raise awareness of the
public opinion. This complementary approach between communication and
information is also relevant with regard to the variety of means of
communication and of media support that exist or that are developed today in
Europe, in particular with the new communication and information technologies.
3. With this in mind, this paper
will try to deliver several ideas or ways for developing comprehensive strategies
of communication and information in relation with the double objective of
fighting against discrimination and of building greater social cohesion and
intercultural dialogue. Thereafter I will introduce the main definitions and
concepts produced and used by the Council of Europe in relation with
intercultural, antidiscrimination and racism issues, with regard to the media
industry, this paper will present several possible strategies of communication
and information to fight against racism and racial discrimination, in
particular the “Speak out discrimination” campaign of the Council
completed by other possible actions with the media and their professionals
promoting intercultural dialogue and the fight against discrimination.
I. Racism
and racial discrimination – The Council of Europe’s main principles and
values
A. The general prohibition
of discrimination – Protocol n°12 of the ECHR
4. In its article 14, the European
convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms (ECHR)
(1950) mentions that “the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in
this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as
sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status”.
The Protocol n°12 to this convention contained a general prohibition of
discrimination adding that “no one shall be discriminated against by any
public authority on any ground such as those mentioned in (art. 14)”
5. To complete the understanding of
the general prohibition of discrimination, the explanatory report added to Protocol
n°12 mentions that “the list of non-discrimination grounds (…) is
identical to that in Article 14 of the Convention. This solution was considered
preferable over others, such as expressly including certain additional
non-discrimination grounds (for example, physical or mental disability, sexual
orientation or age), not because of a lack of awareness that such grounds have
become particularly important in today’s societies as compared with the time of
drafting of Article 14 of the Convention, but because such an inclusion was
considered unnecessary from a legal point of view since the list of
non-discrimination grounds is not exhaustive, and because inclusion of any
particular additional ground might give rise to unwarranted a contrario
interpretations as regards discrimination based on grounds not so included. It
is recalled that the European Court of Human Rights has already applied Article
14 in relation to discrimination grounds not explicitly mentioned in that
provision (see, for example, as concerns the ground of sexual orientation, the
judgment of 21 December 1999 in the case of Salgueiro da Silva Mouta v.
Portugal).” As mentioned previously, the judgements, decisions or case-law
of the European Court of Human Rights will contribute to build a clear
framework for the legal application of these texts to protect and defend
victims of discrimination. In some cases, they are related to the freedom of
expression and of the media.
B. The European Commission
on Racism and Intolerance
6. The European convention on
human rights and its Protocol n°12 give the global framework of any
action, project or programme developed by the Council of Europe on
discrimination and antidiscrimination issues. But, certain grounds of
discrimination have been more at the heart of specific actions as, for example,
for ECRI. The European Commission on Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a
Council of Europe body composed by national independent experts coming from CoE
member states, focuses on racism and racial discrimination. ECRI’s work and
general policy recommendations, in particular ECRI recommendation n°7, complete
these first definitions of discrimination.
7. For ECRI, “racism shall mean
the belief that a ground such as race,
colour, language, religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin justifies
contempt for a person or a group of persons, or the notion of superiority of a
person or a group of persons.” Regarding racial discrimination, ECRI makes
the distinction between “direct racial discrimination” – that “shall mean
any differential treatment based on a ground such as race, colour, language,
religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin, which has no objective and
reasonable justification. Differential treatment has no objective and
reasonable justification if it does not pursue a legitimate aim or if there is
not a reasonable relationship of proportionality between the means employed and
the aim sought to be realised” and “indirect racial discrimination” that “shall
mean cases where an apparently neutral factor such as a provision, criterion or
practice cannot be as easily complied with by, or disadvantages, persons
belonging to a group designated by a ground such as race, colour, language,
religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin, unless this factor has an
objective and reasonable justification. This latter would be the case if it
pursues a legitimate aim and if there is a reasonable relationship of
proportionality between the means employed and the aim sought to be realised”.
C. Media, racism and
discrimination – A Council of Europe major concern
8. Referring to the European
Convention on Human Rights, its Protocol No. 12 on the general prohibition of
discrimination but also to its Article 10 on freedom of expression, several
bodies of the Council of Europe, such as the Parliamentary Assembly or the
Committee of Ministers of The Council of Europe and its steering committees, in
particular the one on the Media and New Communication Services, since
the early 1990’s have been developing a specific and regular attention on the
role the media and their professionals can play to fight against racism and
discrimination.
9. Recommendation 1277
(1995) on migrants, ethnic minorities and the media of the Parliamentary Assembly, the
Committee of Ministers’ recommendations Rec (97) 20 on hate speech, Rec
(97) 21 on the media and the promotion of a culture of tolerance, Rec (2007) 2
on media pluralism and diversity of media content, Rec (2007) 3 on the
remit of public service media in the information society, and the Declaration
of the Committee of Ministers on the role of the community media in promoting
social cohesion and intercultural dialogue (2009) are the main results of
this regular attention given by the Council of Europe on the media and their
professionals with regard to discrimination and racism issues.
10. A part from its
standard-setting work, ECRI has also contributed to offer a better
understanding on how the media can play a role on fighting against racism and
discrimination. For example, the seminar Combating Racism while respecting
freedom of expression (2006) and, previously, the handbook Examples of
“good practices” to fight against racism and intolerance in the European media
(2000) are good sources of inspiration for considering and building global
strategies of communication and information on racism and racial
discrimination.
D. The Council of Europe
White Paper on intercultural Dialogue “Living together as equals in dignity”
11. Adopted by the Committee of
Ministers of the Council of Europe in May 08, “The White Paper on
intercultural Dialogue. Living together as equals in dignity” gives a
global framework to manage Europe’s increasing cultural diversity. For the Council
of Europe, intercultural dialogue is of critical political importance. It
provides a bridge which allows people to live peacefully together, and to deal
with their differences constructively and democratically.
12. Since its creation in 1949 the
Council of Europe has been working systematically to promote and manage
cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, always in line with its core
values of human rights, respect for the rule of law, and democracy. For the
Council of Europe, some fundamentally new developments in recent years pushed
intercultural dialogue higher up on the political agenda, including mass
migration; the fall of the Berlin Wall; and the redrawing of the European
political map during the 1990s. All of this created a situation where it is no
longer possible to avoid talking about identities, about long-term visions of
societal development, interpretation of values, attitudes towards other
cultures…
13. Today, the White Paper is a
reference document, which describes the legal norms, the political guidelines,
the practical experience, the analytical and methodological tools for the
promotion of intercultural dialogue and constitutes a roadmap for living
together as equals in dignity. And its political guidelines, the White Paper
on Intercultural Dialogue invites the media and their professionals to play
their role fully in favour of the fight against discrimination.
14. One of the new activities used
as a means of implementing Council of Europe policy on intercultural dialogue
is the antidiscrimination campaign “Speak out against discrimination”
which is a practical suggestion from the White Paper itself with the global
objective to develop a communication and information strategy targeting the
media and their professionals to fight against discrimination and to promote
intercultural dialogue as a way to achieve greater social cohesion and better
living together.
II. The
Council of Europe antidiscrimination Campaign “Speak out discrimination”[2]
15. The antidiscrimination Campaign
“Speak out discrimination” could be seen as an innovative Council of
Europe approach for fighting against racism and racial discrimination mixing
communication strategy and information strategy. As underlined throughout the
White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue the media play a crucial role in the
shaping of our view and understanding of the world. They have an impact on our
values and our ability and motivation to dialogue. Through the campaign the
Council of Europe wants to provide material that the media may wish to use in
the different contexts to raise awareness and promote antidiscrimination and
intercultural initiatives. In this sense, the campaign works, with and through
the media, to raise awareness amongst victims of discrimination of their rights
and the mechanisms available at European and national level to protect them.
A. A campaign to support the
media sector’s own efforts for fighting racism and racial discrimination
16. In its objectives, approach and
methodology, the campaign supports the media sector’s own efforts to play a
constructive role in an increasingly multicultural environment. While fully
respecting the independence and autonomy of media professionals and
organisations, the campaign pursues three interrelated objectives:
1/ To inform the public, by
working in partnership with the media, about intercultural issues and
anti-discrimination policies pursued at the national and European levels,
particularly at the instigation of the Council of Europe,
2/ To prepare and train,
through lasting partnerships with European training schools of journalism in
Europe, media professionals to be better equipped to work in a multicultural
Europe, with a view to fostering high quality, professional media coverage of
intercultural and discrimination issues,
3/ to contribute to enhanced
expression of the diversity of European societies by strongly supporting access
to the media professions and to media productions for persons from minority
backgrounds.
17. The main long-term expected
outcome of the campaign is the formation of a network of media professionals
and organisations highly motivated to support the promotion of intercultural
dialogue and anti-discrimination practices and policies, as proposed in the
Council of Europe’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue "Living
together as equals in dignity".
18. The campaign is conceived as an
open invitation addressed to professionals working for all types of media and
in all institutional contexts. It encourages initiatives by media
organisations, individual journalists, training establishments and
non-governmental organisations who share the aims and values promoted by the
Council of Europe. Through this campaign, the Council of Europe invites
representatives of interested media organisations, experts and journalists to
play a direct role by providing advice and expertise concerning the promotion
of cultural diversity and the efforts to fight against discrimination, in
particular racism and racial discrimination.
B. A journalist training
pack to work in a multicultural Europe
19. As mentioned above, one of the 3
objectives of the Council of Europe Campaign is to train journalism students
and media professionals to work in a multicultural Europe. Training is seen as
the very first step to foster high quality, professional media coverage of
intercultural and discrimination issues.
20. This part of the campaign
consists on developing
training materials and new resources for trainee or established journalists,
preparing trainers to use these materials and running European training
workshops for journalism trainers. Some elements of the content of this
training pack will give information on the various aspects of discrimination,
in particular racism and racial discrimination in Europe and will insist on how
high quality and professional media coverage can make a difference to build a
greater social cohesion while fighting against racist attitudes and prejudices.
The main ideas of this pack is to give several examples of good practices
developed within the Council of Europe or its campaign partners, such as
editorial guidelines, codes of conduct, international treaties and other legal
instruments available in an accessible journalistic style… By building this
pack, the Campaign wants to give to the media and their professionals tools to
have a better understanding of intercultural and antidiscrimination issues, in
particular in the way they could be covered in a more balanced and professional
approach.
C. Promoting cultural
diversity and its expression, as another and positive way to fight racial prejudices
and attitudes
21. Another objective of the
campaign is to contribute to strengthen the expression of the diversity of
European societies by strongly supporting access to the media professions and
to media productions for persons from minority backgrounds.
22. Today, media access for persons
from minority backgrounds raises two issues: their presence within, and hence
their access to the media professions and the self-expression opportunities and
coverage they are given by the media. The intention in this objective of the
CoE campaign is therefore to focus on human resources policies, by promoting
access to all sectors and all levels of the media industry for persons from
minority backgrounds, and on editorial practices, by fostering high quality,
professional media coverage of cultural diversity within European societies.
23. The main partners involved in
this Media & Diversity work are the European Broadcasting Union, the
Association of Commercial Television in Europe, the World Association of
Newspapers and the European Newspaper Publishers Association, the Community
Media Forum Europe, the European Federation of Journalists, the Association of
European Journalists, the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities, the
Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe… By choosing to work with this
diversity of media partners, the main idea of the Campaign is to involve all
the actors of the media industry – editors, broadcasters, regulators,
journalists… - in the fight against racism and racial discrimination by asking
them to build together a common commitment in favour of a high quality and
professional information covering the real complexity of our today’s European
societies and of their diversities.
D. Involving the media and
their professionals in pilot projects to fight against discrimination and for
intercultural dialogue in Europe
24. The last objective of the
campaign is to work in partnership with the media (mainstream media but also
ethnic & diversity media) to inform the public about intercultural issues
and antidiscrimination policies pursued at the national and European levels. To
achieve this objective the campaign has formed a partnership with the “Intercultural
Cities” project, a programme run jointly by the Council of Europe and the
European Union.
25. Today in Europe discrimination
is a crime. Yet, European and national reports show that discrimination continues
to be commonplace and that the victims or potential victims of discrimination
are relatively uninformed about their rights and the possible remedies
available to them at national and European levels. Given this twofold
observation, the campaign aims to foster, through partnerships with the media
and media professionals, the production and the distribution of information
highlighting the general prohibition of discrimination (information targeting
the public in general to be produced and distributed in liaison with both the
mainstream media and the ethnic & diversity media) and also the mechanisms
to safeguard and defend the rights of victims of discrimination (information
intended for victims or potential victims and to be produced and distributed in
conjunction with the ethnic & diversity media and their professionals.)
26. The main media partners in this
action are, by example, Agencia de Noticias de Portugal, Agenda
interculturel, Agos, Asiansinmedia.org, BBC Radio Leicester,
BBC World Service, Cadena SER, Canal Sur TV, Danas, El Correo de
Andalucia, El Mundo, Gazetta di Reggio, KifKif.be.org,
Klassekampen, La Vanguardia, L'Express (Switzerland), Lyon
Bondy Blog, Magyar Szo, Minaret.it, Onda Local Andalucia
Radio / TV, Radio Leste, Radio Multicult 2.0, Radio Orient, Radio Subotica,
Radio Televisione Italiana (RAI, Regione Emilia Romagna), Radio Télévision
Neuchâtel, Norwegian Radio Television (NRK, TV Programme Migrapolis),
Radio Televizija Vojvodine, Portuguese Radio Television (RTP, TV Programme Nos),
Respect Magazine, Spectrum Radio, Su TV, Tages Zeitung, Turkish
Radio Television (TRT), Utrop, X-plosiv.no, 20
Minutes (Switzerland)…
27. And finally, through this
action, the Campaign wants to build a "permanent" exchange networks at local, national and
European level between media professionals, staff of anti-discrimination bodies
and minorities' representatives. It wants also to support the production and
distribution of written, audiovisual and Internet media reports on
discrimination and racism in Europe.
E. A communication and
visibility campaign to reach the general public…
28. The “Speak Out Against
Discrimination” Campaign also entails various communication and visibility
activities aimed at raising public awareness of the fight against
discrimination in Europe, as a complement to the activities more specifically
targeting the media and media professionals.
29. An initial series of activities
consists of displaying the official campaign poster, run in partnership with
various European cities; the cities' contribution is to make their means of
communication (advertising hoardings, municipal newsletters, etc.) available
free of charge and in some cases to bear the cost of printing the poster in
various formats. Displaying the campaign poster in partnerships with national
antidiscrimination bodies is also another way to make these bodies better know
by putting their logo and web or phone hotline on the poster.
30. The outdoor campaign has been
already implemented in Paris, Strasbourg, Ljubljana, Rome, Milan, Barcelona and
Madrid. It is prepared to be developed in Lisbon, Moscow, Oslo, London… And the
list is not closed for cities that would like to join the Campaign. Olso,
Subotica,
III.
Around the Council of Europe Campaign “Speak out
discrimination”, examples of media practices in favor of fighting racial
discrimination and racism
31. If the Council of Europe “Speak
out against discrimination” Campaign offers a global framework to the media
and their professionals to work together at the European level to fight against
discrimination and racism, various ways are possible and several initiatives
have been developed in several European countries, for getting greater coverage
of intercultural issues and fighting against discrimination in and with the
media.
32. Some of these initiatives aim
to encourage the media industry to give ethnic and minority people greater
access to the media professions and media productions. Some others consider the
contributions to promote intercultural dialogue and the role of the media
created, produced, disseminated and broadcast in Europe by and for, although
even not necessarily exclusively, ethnic minority groups: the Ethnic &
Diversity Media. And finally, a last set of initiatives, as it is the case in
the third pillar of the Council of Europe Campaign, consists on exploring the
ways mainstream media and ethnic & diversity media can collaborate to
provide a quality and professional information on intercultural issues and on
the diversities of our today’s European societies. The last part of this paper
will present the results of these various initiatives developed for many years
now and in some case by some of the Council of Europe partners.
A. The Mainstream media –
The challenge of the visibility of the diversities on screen.
33. For many years and in certain
European countries, the mainstream media have initiated several kinds of
initiatives in order to allow greater on-screen visibility of ethnic and
minority groups. In an initial period, this greater visibility of ethnic and minority
groups involved specific shows dedicated to immigration and intercultural
issues aired until the end of the 1990’s by the public service broadcasters,
especially in France but also in Germany. In the United Kingdom, at the
beginning of the 1990’s, or in France more recently, voluntary policies for the
mainstream media have been developed in order to facilitate the access of
ethnic and minority people to the media professions. These voluntary policies
aim to contribute to a more balanced representation and visibility of the
diversity of today’s societies in Europe. These policies are conceived as a
“positive” approach to show the various components of our European societies
and, thus, to fight against racial and discriminating prejudices, stereotypes and
attitudes.
34. In the 1990’s began a debate –
which has, in fact, never stopped and is still growing – on the visibility and
representation of ethnic and minority groups in the media. A overview of the
main initiatives introduced in France, in the United Kingdom, in Germany or
even in the USA, shows clearly that the presence and representation of minority
groups, in particular ethnic and minority ones, challenges issues such as
colonial histories, immigration and integration policies and communication and
audiovisual mechanisms of regulation in each of these countries. But,
nevertheless, in any event and even with these voluntary policies initiated by
the media, the visibility of ethnic minority groups in the mainstream media is
explicitly perceived as a major aspect of the strengthening of national and
social cohesion.
35. As regards information and
programme content, ethnic and minority groups are regularly, even still today,
presented as a threat to the security of the “national” population, as it can
be observed in the way news concerning these groups is constructed and
disseminated or broadcast. In other words, ethnic and minority groups are often
mentioned in the news in relation to issues of crime, terrorism, drugs… At the
end of the 1990’s, the mainstream media made attempts to change this situation
and to show some positive images of ethnic and minority persons linked to
success stories. But these figures were limited to sport or the arts. Thus, this
new journalistic treatment of ethnic and minority groups was not in a position
to counterbalance the daily negative treatment of migratory flows, Islam or the
“banlieues”...
36. Today, after 15 years of such
voluntary policies, it must be recognised that few analyses, if any, are
available to measure the impact of these policies within the media industry.
Scientific research on the media are still silent on the topics of content
production, symbolic messages or the social imaginary created by these
voluntary actions by the media on ethnic and minority groups and issues. Even
if in some cases, namely in the United Kingdom, it is recognised that the
visibility of minorities has increased, there is still a feeling of disappointment
expressed by ethnic and minority groups about the way they are portrayed on
screen. This disappointment can be mainly explained by the fact that the
presence of minorities on screen cannot be limited to the idea of seeing
someone of the same skin colour. Ethnic and minority people recruited by the
mainstream media are still not considered in the context of their professional
background. They often remain viewed as representatives of the groups of
populations to which they are supposed to belong and which the mainstream media
want to show.
37. At a time when diversity
reveals today’s political and cultural tensions at both national and
transnational levels, the challenge of the representation of minorities in the
media becomes more crucial. A more balanced representation on screen as well as
in the press and an appropriate participation of minorities in one of today’s
most important today’s cultural industries – the media – is, of course,
important not only for the mainstream media themselves but also for a more
democratic management of the society as a whole. But today, the main challenge
is to go beyond the sole issue of the “physical visibility” of ethnic and
minority persons on screen as it has been developed in the main voluntary
policies initiated by the mainstream media in Europe. This visibility is a
necessary condition to gain better media representation of minority groups but
it is a not sufficient one if it is not conceived and thought as an element of
a more global policy for social cohesion and integration of all the groups of
population living and, thus, sharing the same society.
B. Ethnic & Diversity
Media – Another possible new media actor to fight against discrimination and to
promote intercultural dialogue
38. The term ethnic & diversity
media is used for all media that have an editorial approach that is
principally oriented towards the ethnic diversity to be found within European
societies, address one or more of the constituent groups that make up this
diversity, are mainly produced and disseminated in Europe, are produced by
journalists and staff that are representative of the ethnic diversity of
European societies and are directed by, or belong to persons who are
representative of this diversity. These media may be television, radio, print
media, or the Internet. In France and in French, the term “media of diversity”
has been preferred to other usages, such as ‘community media’ or ‘ethnic
media’, which have been adopted in the English-speaking world. The term “media
of diversity” seems to correspond better to the way these media see themselves
and the contributions they make within their respective worlds, i.e. giving a
voice to the diversity of the components of contemporary European societies.
39. One of the main characteristics
of ethnic & diversity media is their extreme diversity. In France there are
about a hundred newspapers and magazines, of which around fifty appear
regularly. In Paris and its surrounding region, a quarter of local radio
stations are so-called ethnic stations. However, there are far fewer ethnic
television stations and even fewer have their own policy of production and
broadcasting. The frequency of publication of ethnic & diversity print media
is also extremely variable. Many appear quarterly, some monthly, but very few
appear fortnightly. Those published weekly are usually magazines and
newsletters sent out via the Internet. The kinds of organisations that run
ethnic & diversity media are also very diverse. While local radio stations
are often run by non-profit associations, ethnic & diversity media may also
be privately owned (i.e. commercial). This is especially the case for national
radio networks and many print media.
40. Nevertheless, there are major
differences between European countries in the way these media are organised. In
the United Kingdom, ethnic & diversity media groups exist (e.g. the Ethnic
Media Group), publishing several different titles, but they are virtually
non-existent in other countries in continental Europe. However, ethnic &
diversity media in Europe do have one characteristic in common, with a few -
too rare – exceptions, namely, their vulnerability. These media encounter
genuine difficulties in accessing both financial and human resources, which
handicaps their capacities to develop, and limits their range of influence.
41. For ethnic & diversity
media,
it emerges that the priority subjects dealt with by ethnic & diversity
media include immigration, foreigners’ rights, culture, integration, housing,
education, health and citizenship, discrimination and racism. A second set of
priority subjects deals with the countries or regions of origin of the
different communities at which these media mainly aimed. These two groups of
preferred subject-matter set ethnic & diversity media apart from the
mainstream media, which may be explained by the nature of their respective
target audiences. Ethnic & diversity media, by definition, are targeted
mainly at one or more ethnic and minority communities, which have a need for
specific kinds of information, not usually found in the mass media - which of
course are aimed at the general public.
42. One question that crops up
regularly concerns the impact of ethnic & diversity media on the
integration of the communities to which they are addressed. To try to answer to
this question, more specific observations need to be made on the audience these
media reach. But we can observe today that within the Ethnic & Diversity
Media, some of them will target, as a priority, a multicultural audience. In
France, several print magazines such as Respect Magazine or Cité
Black focus on young people coming from a mix of cultures and areas. These
magazines can be considered multicultural as others in Europe are, for example
the TV show broadcast in the Netherlands, Boter Kaas en Eieren (MTNL),
the radio programme Melting Pot and Etnoblog or the print
magazines Citta meticcia and Altri in Italy. Other ethnic &
diversity media will make the choice to target a more specific audience or
public. In France, the print magazine Divas focuses on Francophone black
women; the print Salama or the radio Beur FM and Radio Orient
target essentially, if not exclusively, ethnic minority and migrant people with
a North-African or a Middle-Eastern background. The Internet news website Saphirnews.com
focuses on Muslims. In other European countries, for example the Netherlands,
the print magazines Sen, The Voice, M’Zine and Maroc.nl
target respectively Mediterranean women, sub-Saharan migrant populations
and the Moroccan communities. In Italy, the TV shows, Mosaic, El Noticiero are
dedicated to the Russian communities while the print magazines Expreso Latino,
Los Andes are linked to the Latin-American ones. What we observed also is
that, even if they target a specific population group, in any event, one of the
primary objectives of ethnic & diversity media is to reach the general
public opinion.
43. Regarding
the main characteristics of the ethnic & diversity media, some policies can
be defined and conceived through and with them to fight against racism and
racial discrimination, in particular policies having the main objective to
reach the minority groups. Building partnership with ethnic & diversity
media in the framework of a communication but also information strategy on
racism and racial discrimination could be a way to support their development
but also for the other partners, i.e. national antidiscrimination bodies, for
example, to also get the information coming from the minority groups and the
way they perceive their
place in the
society. And this last element is also fundamental for a better conception of
policies dedicated to greater social cohesion and integration.
C. Building bridges between
mainstream media and ethnic & diversity media in Europe for reaching all
the components of today’s European societies in their diversity.
44. The editorial lines of the
ethnic & diversity media are linked to their proper strategic area of
development in terms of audiences and public. According to these areas of
development and these editorial lines, it is clear that the ethnic &
diversity media cover a wide and diverse spectrum of audiences and public. But
while they target mainly, even if not exclusively, specific groups and
audiences, ethnic & diversity media aim to make the general public aware of
the main economic, social, cultural and political issues and dynamics coming
from the diversity of today’s European societies. They aim to produce and
disseminate or broadcast complementary information to that produced by
mainstream media. This puts ethnic & diversity media in the role of a
“relay”, or mediator between the various groups that make up European
societies.
45. One of today’s major challenges
could be to encourage the ethnic & diversity media to act as a real relay
and mediator, by supporting the development of alliances, partnerships and
collaboration between these media, as well as with the mainstream media,
because these alliances and partnerships are a way of strengthening ethnic
& diversity media to reach a wider public, and, at the same time, to
promote a better understanding of the concerns, issues and dynamics of the
various ethnic and minority communities living in Europe. For the mainstream
media, the interest of such collaboration lies in gaining access to more
diverse sources of information on international and intercultural issues, news
subjects, and innovative ways of treating them... In other words, this should
strengthen the capacity of ethnic & diversity media to produce disseminate
and broadcast their content, to increase their access to resources and to ensure
their sustainability while at sometime making the mainstream media more open.
IV. To
conclude… Communication vs Information or Looking vs Listening.
46. Building communication and
information strategies on racism and racial discrimination can go through
several ways and are a real today’s challenge. And this challenge must really
be taken up now because all these actions to promote the expression of ethnic
minorities, to include diversity in the media or to raise awareness of public
opinion on racism and discrimination will be in vain if although European
societies seem to recognise today that they must look at their own diversities,
still refuses to hear, even more to listen to them. And this refusal of seeing,
hearing and listening is often responsible for misunderstandings that lead to
prejudices, stereotypes and attitudes towards groups considered or seen as
different. And, finally, they are the real foundations on which racism and
racial discrimination can grow.
