UNESCO, UNHCR support handbook to boost skills on reporting on migrants and refugees

AMMAN - With support from UNESCO and UNHCR, the Arabic version of the “UNESCO Handbook for Journalism Educators: Reporting on Migrants and Refugees” has now been launched: A valuable tool in a region which hosts both the largest and oldest refugee population in the world.

The launch event, under the patronage of HRH Princess Rym Ali, was hosted by the Jordan Media Institute (JMI) in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday, November 5, 2022. 

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, expressed his support for the handbook in a message videotaped especially for the occasion, according to a statement from UNESCO. 

UNESCO was represented by Head of the Jordan Office, Min Jeong Kim. 

According to co-editors Susanne Fengler and Monika Lengauer from the TU Dortmund University in Germany, the UNESCO handbook addresses journalism educators in the Arab region in a “first, genuine and unabridged translation that aims to support responsible reporting on migrants and refugees.” 

It represents an important additional resource for journalists and journalism educators in a region which only last year counted a total of 16 million forcibly displaced and stateless people, according to the UNHCR. 

Princess Rym, founder of the JMI and a former journalist herself, highlighted: “Words matter, proper use of terminology matters, knowledge of treaties and conventions matter – above all understanding the reasons for refuge and migration and, beyond the statistics, the human stories matter.”  

She added that “this handbook fills the gap within journalism education in our region”.

In his address, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, referring to the handbook: “As it covers the perspectives from origin, transit and asylum countries, it equips future journalists with the skills to explain complex realities leading to human suffering and allowing for solutions to their plight.” 

The UNESCO representative to Jordan commented: “People on the move is a major global phenomenon that calls for high expertise in reporting. The Arab region is no exception, and this handbook offers universal insights as well as those specific to the region”. 

A keynote speech was delivered by Jane Arraf, New York Times’ Baghdad bureau chief. 

She highlighted the responsibility of journalists to “convey as full a picture as we can about a subject which has become so divisive in so many parts of the world.” 

Editors Fengler and Lengauer represented the team of editors and authors from the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism (EBI) and the Institute of Journalism at TU Dortmund University in Germany. 

They underlined the relevance of publishing the Arabic translation as the first in a series of full translations: "The Arab region continues to play a major role as countries of origin, transit and asylum. We very much hope that the handbook will support Arab educators and students at universities and in training institutions, as well as practicing journalists in their reporting on migration and forced displacement, and in curbing disinformation and misinformation.” 

The original English version of the handbook was peer-reviewed by a group of international, including Arab, scholars. Fatma Louati, who translated it into Arabic, explained that this “is the only Arabic resource based on up-to-date and peer-reviewed research that we Arab journalism educators have currently at hand”. 

The handbook is based on six years of extensive scientific work by the Dortmund research team and its editors Fengler, Lengauer and Anna-Carina Zappe, as well as numerous international conferences and workshops with scholars and journalists representing countries of migrants’ and refugees’ origin, transit, and reach.

Over 30 international guest authors have contributed to the project, including Arab researchers. 

In addition to the original English version and the new Arabic translation, versions in French, Spanish and Kiswahili will be launched soon.

The handbook is available free online on the UNESCO International Programme for the Development of Communication resource hub: https://bit.ly/3U3PR5g