Training for journalists on refugees, migrants and displaced persons takes place in Kharkiv

April 9-10, the training for journalists on “Peculiarities of covering problems of refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons in media” took place in Kharkiv.

The training was focused on the following topics: “Freedom of speech, nationalism, discrimination: evolution of definitions and international standards,” “Hate speech in the media: causes, types, scale and consequences”, “Nationality, citizenship and ethnicity: specifity of terms”, “The essence of concepts ‘migrant’, ‘refugee’, ‘asylum seeker’, ‘internally displaced person’”, “Journalistic ethics in covering stories of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons. Principles of security and privacy.”

In addition, the journalists took part in the discussion “Freedom of speech and responsibility: are there limits on covering stories of migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons?” and found out about the current situation and the main problems and threats to migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons in Ukraine.

The event’s trainers and experts were Maksym Butkevych, co-coordinator of the Without borders project implemented by the Social Action Centre, Yana Salakhova, expert on combating racism and xenophobia at the International Organization for Migration in Ukraine, and Tetiana Pechonchyk, head of the Human Rights Information Centre.

The special guest of the event was Branka Shesto, head of the Kharkiv team of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. She told about the year of work of the UN Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and problems in observing human rights when covering stories of displaced persons from the military conflict zone. Branka worked as a TV journalist in the war-torn Croatia and shared the challenges she faced, as well as the reasons for her leaving journalism.

The event was finished with the discussion with representatives of volunteer organizations assisting the forced displaced persons in Kharkiv.

The training was attended by 27 journalists from different cities of Ukraine, representing print, electronic, radio and television types of media, as well as their specialized high schools.

The event was organized by the Human Rights Information Centre in cooperation with the Without borders project of the Social Action Centre under the aegis of the Coalition to Fight Discrimination in Ukraine with support of the European Union and the Human rights and Justice program of the  International Fund “Revival”.