Learning to Report on Migrant Related Matters
Global statistics indicate that there are more than two hundred million international migrants who have decided to leave their birth country in search of a better life. Migration is one of the significant instruments for globalization and here at home; for every Belizeans who leaves the country, an undocumented migrant enters. There are over three thousand undocumented migrants who have entered Belize seeking asylum. The matter on migration has dominated the airwaves across the world over the last few years. It is a polarizing issue, especially in North America where the topic of migrants has dominated their news cycles. Over the weekend, the International Organization for Migration- the UN migration agency- hosted the media and communication officers for the Belize Police Department and the Belize Defence Force for a one-day sensitization session to provide training on news coverage of migration issues and migration management. Dyon Elliott is the Technical Consultant.
Dyon Elliott
Dyon Elliott, Technical Consultant, International Organization for Migration
“You know that there is a lot of migration matters that come up from time to time and the question is who do we approach those types of issues. As journalists it is always a matter of navigating a bunch of opinions. A lot of views are out there. Some people are extreme from one end to the next and then you have everybody in between. Many such frameworks exist that provide a way of approaching these types of stories, making sure that we stick to facts instead and avoiding bias, making sure that there is a legal element to a lot of migration related matters. So we know the law. We looked at other things like whether or not there is a human side to it and for example you hear talks about migrant caravan but there is a human element to these stories. So you need to go into those. Making sure that the people who are claiming to speak on behalf of these groups are legitimately representatives of those group. Most importantly making sure we are avoiding hate speech. You know sometimes there are people who are very xenophobic and they take these extreme views, anti immigrant type of stances when a lot of Belizeans ourselves migrate to other countries. Looking at it from that standpoint is really t o make sure that we cover stories within the framework that has been established in terms of best practice.”
The training was in collaboration with the Canadian Funds for Local Initiative.
