Migrant Voices

Following a production training course (14 – 23 May 2012) on migration and diversity organized by Symbiosis and the Media Diversity Institute, in partnership with Thessaloniki Municipality Media, eight stories about migrants and the crisis in Greece were nationally broadcasted in June 2012.

During the ten-day training course, eight migrants were taught how to produce television and radio news programmes. The hands-on collaborative style of the course gave participants the opportunity to exchange experiences and explore diversity through practice. It gave migrants, whose voices tend to be marginalized, a platform to express their views on issues affecting them, and to address the public, thus challenging stereotypes prevalent in Greek media.

For “Migrant Voices”, Symbiosis was awarded fourth place in the final round of the Seventh Euro-Mediterranean Award for Dialogue Between Cultures (2012) of the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) and Fondazione Mediterraneo (FM). This annual award, bestowed by forty-two ALF National Networks, recognizes the achievements of individuals and organizations at the forefront of dialogue stimulation in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The workshop was part of the Ethics Journalism Initiative adopted by the International Journalists’ Federation which aimed to improve coverage of issues related to nationality, race, religion and immigration by EU media outlets.