The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) is organising a media camp for 30 participants – journalists, audio visual professionals, and NGO and social activists who will exchange best practices and create innovative media products related to countering online hate speech towards migrants. The media camp will be held in London on 23-27 April as part of the project and campaign #SilenceHate.

The participants coming from all over Europe will work in teams and as individuals. They are expected to design at least 10 media products and/or campaigns about migration issues responding to the ethical challenges associated with reporting on migrants. The media camp will be followed by mentoring and sub-granting for content production.

One of the aims of the media camp is to strengthen collaboration and networking between different sectors – journalism, blogosphere, civic activism – in order to overturn the negative image of migration in Europe. Many recent studies show that manifestations of hate speech against migrants are increasing in Europe.

The media camp will be facilitated by an experienced cinematographer/ producer/director and editor David Hands, the General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) Ricardo Gutiérrez and a freelance journalist and MDI Communications Manager Danica Dasha Ilic.

#SilenceHate is a project led by the Italian organisation COSPE with participation of prominent European organisations such as MDI, Amnesty Italy and Poland, EFJ, Karpos, Zaffiria and the Cyprus Community Media Centre. The aim of the project is to combat and prevent online hate speech against migrants by developing new and creative counter-narratives.