REPORTING ON asylum issues can have a major impact on the integration of refugees, on public opinion and on the development of policy, according to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative.
Manuel Jordao was speaking yesterday at the launch of National Union of Journalists (NUJ) guidelines on reporting on refugees, co-sponsored by the Irish Refugee Council, the UNHCR and the union.
He said the global number of people uprooted by conflict and persecution stood at 42 million at the end of 2008.
“I can’t appeal to you to be positive in your reporting of these issues, but I can ask you to be accurate and balanced,” he said.
“Skewed, inaccurate or unbalanced reports on asylum can confuse public opinion, create false impressions and definitely makes the work of agencies like ours much harder.”
Press Ombudsman Prof John Horgan said that guides and codes, at the end of the day, are just that. “They can assist, but can never be a substitute for, the exercise by all journalists of a deep sense of personal responsibility, of their allegiance to truth and fair dealing and of their vocation to public service.”
He added that responsibility for responding adequately to the problems of refugees did not rest on the shoulders of journalists alone.
“The message has to come [also] from community and political leadership, and from individual and social institutions at every level.”
Séamus Dooley, of the NUJ, said that over the past ten years the coverage of asylum seekers and refugees had improved, but there was still work to be done.
“In times of recession there is a real danger that Irish society could again become more insular and that migrants could become scapegoats, through the peddling of familiar myths about welfare payments and extravagant entitlements.” He praised the response of local communities to the attacks on Romanians in Belfast earlier this week.
“Media coverage has reflected the strength of local feeling but has gone beyond that and the national newspaper titles in particular have provided remarkable leadership in words and pictures,” he said.
Freelance journalist and specialist on refugee issues Colin Murphy said that the use of language was important.
The term “asylum seeker” cast people as mendicants, and they were often portrayed as victims. It was important to choose language that showed people as individuals.
Abiba Ndeley, a journalist and a refugee, said that it was important to understand when interviewing refugees that sometimes they were careful about what they said, not because they were trying to hide things, but because they wanted to protect their families.
Robin Hanan, of the refugee council, said that accurate reporting informed public debate. It was important to understand not just the problems refugees had, but what they had to contribute to society.