Date: 18 November 2016

Country: UK, London

“Take a stand against hate speech. Never report it neutrally” – this is professor Cherian George’s message to the media. At the launch of his new book Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and its Threat to Democracy, George argued political and civic responses are required in order to develop and maintain a culture of tolerance and openness to others. Further, he asserted that legal restrictions are often ineffective and should be a last resort in open societies. "What is the most needed are equal rights and discrimination laws," believes George.

His new book was launched during the Inter Faith Week in the UK that aims to enable greater interaction between people of different backgrounds. It also celebrates diversity and interfaith dialogue, as well as understanding between people of different religious and non-religious beliefs.

Published: 17 November 2017

Country: UK, London

South Social Film Festival is not an ordinary festival. Its focus is on independent international cinema by not only screening various films from around the world, but also by playing music and serving food from the country of the film. The festival is celebrating its first anniversary on 27 November at the Cinema Museum in London.

South Social Film Festival celebrates diversity of communities by giving the independent, international cinema a home in South London to encourage a fair representation of different cultures, voices and stories. This is a not-for-profit film festival.

Date: 24 October 2016

Country: Belgium, Brussels

The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) Executive Director Milica Pesic moderated a workshop for journalists on how to reporton issues related to migration, asylum seekers and refugees, as well as how to cover the conflict in Syria. More than 20 journalists around Europe debated what are the ways to represent refugees and asylum seekers and how to do versatile, ethical journalism on Syria.

The workshop was held in Brussels on 24 October and was organised by The Finnish Institute in London, The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux and Felm, in collaboration with The European Federation of Journalists.

Date: 28 September 2016

Country: Morocco

The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) worked together with its partners, human rights and political institutions, local journalists and civil society activists in Morocco for the last 3 years in promoting freedom of expression, diversity and inclusion. Results and achievements of the project supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swiss Embassy, were celebrated at the Closing ceremony in Rabat, on 28 September.

Since Morocco is holding general elections in October 2016, discussion at the MDI conference concentrated around freedom of expression, diversity and its implementation in new legislative period, and around MDI’s input towards more inclusive media landscape and civil society in Morocco.

Published: 21 September 2016

Region: Europe

The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) representative attended a meeting with No Hate Speech Movement, a campaign of the Council of Europe. The meeting was held in preparations for a seminar on antisemitism to be held early 2017. Several representatives from organisations operating in the field of tackling antisemitism and other types of racism, including MDI, CEJI and ENAR, as well as No hate Speech Movement members, exchanged ideas and opinions. MDI shared its experience from the recently finished project Get the Trolls Out which focussed on combatting antisemitism in the European (online) media.

Dates: 20 – 22 September 2016

Country: Indonesia, Jakarta

The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) held its fourth international conference titled “Decoding the Future: Rethinking Media for a New World” in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) participated at the World Forum by presenting its project Get the Trolls Out.

In a session Youth v. Propaganda, MDI Executive Director Milica Pesic explained how the project targeted younger users of the social media and helped them recognise myths, lies, or hateful rhetoric and deal with them in constructive ways by using different mechanisms – from street theatre, radio debates, documentary films to cartoons or off and online debates. Pesic also presented the MDI guide for countering hate speech on Twitter.