Published: 22 February 2013

Region: Europe

Nine countries, members of the European Union, will lift their labour market restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian citizens from 1 January 2014 as the seven-year transition period since the two countries joined runs out.

From the beginning of the next year, citizens of Romania and Bulgaria will have all the rights to live and work in the EU that two countries have joined in 2007.

Great Britain is one of the countries along with Germany and France which will be relaxing the restrictions imposed after the last EU enlargement. Ahead of lifting the ban, British media has started to speculate on the number of migrants who would come to live and work in the UK, as well as on the consequences of their arrival for the country’s economy.

The figures circulating in the British media go from 250,000 Bulgarians and Romanians ‘to head to UK’ as in the Telegraph to 29 million as predicted by Daily Mail.

Published: 22 February 2013

Country: UK, London

The Executive Director of the Media Diversity Institute (MDI), Milica Pesic, addressed the students at City University in London. Last week she gave a lecture to the MA International Journalism students from around 25 countries talking on the subject ‘Why diversity matters’.

Stressing the essentials of MDI work such as freedom of expression and access to the information for all citizens regardless of their political, social and cultural background, Pesic explained the principles of inclusive journalism.

“Why ‘putting the facts together’ is not enough? ‘Where we get the facts from, who we interview and how we put the facts and the visuals together is what qualifies us to call ourselves responsible journalists”, said MDI’s Executive Director to the City University students.

Published: 21 February 2013

Country: Egypt

The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) launched three studies on how inclusive and diverse Egyptian media content is. All studies, in English and Arabic, are available for download.

The last in the series of reports is focusing on the period immediately preceding, and during, the country’s Constitutional Referendum (November & December 2012).

The study is the third in a series of 4 studies that are being produced over the life of a two year MDI programme, 'Embracing Free Expression, Diversity and Inclusiveness: Rebuilding post-revolution Egyptian media', funded by SIDA.

The latest (third) MDI study on media diversity during Egypt's Constitutional Referendum can be downloaded in English here:

MDI Diversity Observatory Report 3.pdf

Published: 18 February 2013

Region: Worldwide

There have been some serious concerns about the way media across the globe reported on the murder of Reeva Steenkamp, model from South Africa. Steenkamp's boyfriend, Olympic medallist Oscar Pistorius has been charged for her murder.

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) in South Africa expressed its concerns that some media organisations report “in a way that shifts attention away from the core issue of gender based violence, and seeks to focus attention on Mr Pistorius’s iconic and role model status. The consequence of this style of reporting is to present Ms Steenkamp’s death as an unfortunate aberration rather than part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence in South Africa”, says CGE.

After the murder of South African model Reeva Steenkamp, British tabloid the Sun run the front page showing her in a bikini with the headline "3 shots. Screams. Silence". As noted by the Guardian’s columnist Marina Hyde, a huge picture of Steenkamp pulling down the zip of a bikini top was splashed over the Sun’s front page even as her corpse was lying in a Pretoria morgue awaiting a postmortem.

That was “a new low” by the newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch, said John Prescott, the former deputy PM. Other reactions followed.

The incident, writes Marina Hyde in the Guardian, “swiftly and widely declared a tragedy for South Africa, for sport, and for disability rights. And – presumably to a lesser extent, because it was scarcely suggested in the scramble to get hold of bikini shots – for her family and friends”.

Date: 28 February and 1 March 2013

Country: Spain, Barcelona

The Anna Lindh Foundation will hold a meeting on ‘Media Facing Tensions and Transitions in the Mediterranean’. It will focus on the challenges Media and journalists are facing as a consequence of the new social and cultural landscape which is emerging in the region.

The meeting will take place in Barcelona on the 28th of February and the 1st of March 2013.

It is co-organised with the ALF Head of the Spanish Network IEMed and the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean.

70 renowned journalists, media professionals and civil society representatives will gather to discuss the role of Media in reporting about the ongoing democratic transitions in the Arab countries and the economic and social crisis affecting the European societies.

One of the panels during this meeting will debate the possibility of reporting across cultures and how to involve more of a diversity element in everyday media coverage.