ACRONYM hosts online workshops on reporting migration and asylum

Over three Fridays in September and October 2025, the ACRONYM project hosted a series of online activities for professional and student journalists across Europe. Focused on reporting migration and asylum, the activity gathered 17 participants: 10 students and 7 professional journalists. Interestingly, the majority of participants were migrants or refugees themselves. Alongside an Afghan refugee working as a journalist in France was an Irish journalist living in Slovakia, of the several students enrolled in the Erasmus Mundus Journalism, Media and Globalisation one came from Brazil and another from the Philippines.

Under the guidance of trainer and international consultant Charles Autheman, the participants covered a broad diversity of topics: terminology and legal frameworks, ethical dilemmas, cross-border reporting, addressing mal-, mis- and disinformation challenges. They learned about some important resources such as the media friendly glossary on migration, the media toolkit on reporting fair recruitment or the ethical charters developed in Italy or France.

The final session was largely devoted to sharing story ideas and unpacking creative ways to bring migration stories to life. A particularly timely initiative given the toxicity of much of migration-related information across Europe and the challenges faced by journalists to provide audiences with renewed narratives in a very politicized environment. The participants organized themselves in a loose network to stay in touch beyond this activity. Hopefully this will lead to compelling stories and further motivation to tell the story of migration and asylum with care and professionalism.