The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), in partnership with the EBU, has released a new e-learning platform for reporting on migration, developed by journalists for journalists.

Released to mark World Refugee Day on 20 June, the platform ensures help is at hand for media seeking to enhance the quality of their work in this field. The online e-Media Toolkit provides first-hand assistance to media professionals with learning resources, training courses, and opportunities to share and interact.

EBU Members, through the Intercultural and Diversity TV Group, have been instrumental in the development of the toolkit, while others (including France TV, BBC and Radio France International) have provided content, case studies and guidance.

The learning section allows users to take courses in which journalists or editors of leading media outlets share their real-life newsroom dilemmas of reporting on migration. Training provides material for media trainers to design their own courses. In addition, sharing allows users to interact with other users through forum discussions on fundamental rights and ethical journalism principles. Users can also propose new courses or download the news examples for further discussion among peers.

The toolkit offers wide-ranging guidance on covering migration from different types of media. This includes how to ensure ethical reporting treating people fairly and with dignity, balancing accuracy, impartiality and humanity as well as the importance of context in providing balanced, impartial coverage.

As well as from EBU Members, input has also been drawn from leading media outlets including Agence France-Presse, Le Monde, INA, The Guardian, and the Financial Times.  

The FRA has developed this toolkit together with the EBU and the Ethical Journalism Network with the support of the European Federation of Journalists. It is an ongoing project and builds on the popular 2008 Diversity Toolkit that FRA also developed in close partnership with the EBU.

EBU Members can access the toolkit here and create their own login to access the content.