Dead Sea – An inter-regional consultation of senior media executives hosted by the ILO and organised by Panos Europe took place in Jordan, under the patronage of the Ministry of Labour, with the aim of building partnerships with the media, and fostering quality reporting on migration and migrant workers.“Reflecting on reporting on migration is critical”, said Hamada Abu Nijmeh, Secretary General of the Jordanian Ministry of Labour. He added, “The developmental and awareness-raising aspects of the media today set society’s cultural agenda and sometimes even drive public opinion. Because of this role, the media may sometimes be able to do what politicians and decision-makers are unable to.”
Senior media executives from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ethiopia brought a wealth of experience in making and setting the news, and openly shared challenges they face when reporting on migration.
Dr. Azfar Khan, senior migration specialist in the ILO’s Regional Office for Arab States, explained that this initiative stems from the ILO’s project on better migration governance (MAGNET), and puts in place the first step towards working with the media to support the ILO strategy in the region and improve labour migration governance. Migration experts and civil society actors working in the field also participated in the discussion. In his keynote speech, Dr. Ibrahim Awad of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies spoke on “Labour migration and its challenges for the media”, insisting on the responsibilities of the media to “dispel myths and misconceptions about labour migration”.
The consultation was developed by Panos Europe, which has a track record in implementing projects focusing on the media reporting of migration issues. The program covered a wide array of topics over 2 days, with participants discussing where we stand on reporting on labour migration in the Middle East, structural constraints in reporting on migration and their impact on journalists, and designing a way forward to training journalists to improve the quality of content in the media. The programme also included a screening of “Champ of the Camp”, a documentary by award-winning filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour, which takes viewers into the labour camps of the UAE, where labourers compete for an annual Bollywood-themed singing competition.
In the concluding session, the ILO outlined the way forward and upcoming next activities, namely the organising of national training workshops for journalists of the Middle East, and inter-regional training workshops, where journalists from the Middle East are taken to countries of origin of migrant workers to develop their reporting skills and see the story from the other side.
