Media Against Hate
Journalists from community and refugee media organizations across Europe gathered in Concordia Press Club in Vienna, Austria, for the first of three workshops in a Media Against Hate campaign. The focus of the two-day workshop, held April 3-4, was on storytelling and audience interaction as tools to end hate speech against women journalists, refugees and migrants.
During the event, instructors invited participants to develop their own storytelling ideas — either as audio, video, articles, or multimedia — in professional or community media, or as part of NGO campaign work, and to share them after the workshop. Speakers and participants talked about ideas and actions to counter hate speech and engage audience, and also brainstormed strategies to strengthen audience and community interaction in online forums whilst safeguarding hate-free discussion environments.
Additionally, they shared examples of how their own work fosters inclusion and connection across borders and communities.
A selected group of participants included 24 women and eight men aged between 19 and 63, and came from Greece, Croatia, UK, Germany, Bulgaria, Rumania, Czech Republic, Belgium, Poland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Austria; their nationalities also included Syrian, U.S., Italian, Spanish and Cameroonian.
Participants were interested in the BBG programs and thrilled that the agency is offering content for re-broadcast at no cost. Inna Dubinsky, BBG Development Officer, and Marketa Poulikova, BBG Marketing Officer in Prague, showed them how to use our distribution platform BBG Direct. They discussed how to acquire content, and examined BBG’s structure and mission, VOA and RFE/RL’s Language Services, and MBN’s programming and partnerships.
During the presentation, journalists asked questions about BBG audience, affiliates, and broadcasting platforms, as well as the safety and security for VOA reporters in the field.
The BBG helped fund the workshop, which gave the agency access to owners and operator of community radio stations focused on refugees.