Date: 10 June 2014

Country: Algeria

The law allows rapists to walk free if they marry their victim – if she is under 18 years old. This is the case in Algeria and Tunisia. According to statistics in Algeria, more than 1,000 sexual assaults on women are recorded per year. Experts believe that these figures do not reflect the reality as many victims are too afraid or ashamed to report the crime to the police.

A conference on sexual violence against women in Algeria, which was held on 10^th June 2014, was organised and executed by the Media Diversity Institute, in cooperation with “Femme en Communication” and “Reseau Wassila”. These organisations fight for greater gender equality in the country. Throughout the conference, many social taboos were challenged and a sincere discussion on this important issue took place.

Published: 18 June 2014

Country: US

Trusting Fox News has been proclaimed the number one predictor for someone to be opposed to the idea of immigrants becoming US citizens, according to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and Brookings.

The results showed that the 60% of Republicans who trust Fox News the most to provide an accurate information about the politics and current events, consider immigrants as a burden for America supporting that the latter take their jobs, housing and health care. On the contrary, the majority of the Republicans who have trust in other news sources (56%) say immigrants today strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents.

Country: UK

Published: 16 June 2014

The lack of voices of immigrants in media stories regarding immigration and its impact on the UK was revealed in new research conducted by the organization “Migrant Voice”.

Only 12% out of those quoted were migrants, in a total of 577 stories talking about immigration from eight different media outlets. The research team analysed the media during a period of 11 weeks. The BBC quoted the highest number of migrants in a seven day period in which 11 migrants were quoted in 13 stories.

Region: Worldwide

Published: 13 June 2014

Thomson Reuters Foundation organises a three-day seminar for journalists who are interested in or cover security issues around the world.

The 2014 Global Security Seminar aims to improve the quality of reporting on security and terrorism exploring the challenges of responsible coverage on these issues and comparing approaches with journalists from a range of different countries. This major seminar will bring together leading security experts, authoritative commentators and journalists for a series of lively presentations and debates.

Region: MENA & Europe

Published: 13 June 2014

Prix Italia, one of the most prestigious and oldest international competitions for Radio, TV and Web programmes in cooperation with COPEAM launches a film contest regarding the phenomenon of immigration from MENA Region.

In the occasion of its 66th edition, Prix Italia organises the event "Refugees Stories: Glances from the South” and opens its doors to all the audiovisual operators coming from the Southern countries (Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East etc.), in order to collect short films or clips of documentaries/reportages on this delicate topic. The aim is to go beyond the usual information provided by the media, offering a more human perspective of the phenomenon of the refugees.