Opening of the training, Belgrade, October 2024 ©UNHCR
Over 30 journalists from national and local media outlets, along with journalism students, participated in the workshop “How to Professionally Report on Refugees,” organized by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Journalists’ Association of Serbia.
Participants were presented with the latest global displacement statistics in the opening session.
“According to UNHCR’s Mid-Year Report, 122.6 million people worldwide have been forced to flee their homes. Behind each figure is a human story, and it is crucial that journalists keep this in mind while maintaining professional standards in their reporting,” UNHCR emphasized.
A legal expert explained the difference between refugees and migrants, identifying this conflation as one of the common mistakes in day-to-day reporting. The session also covered other key terms like asylum seekers and internally displaced persons.
“When explaining this distinction, one campaign comes to mind—a UNHCR initiative from a few years ago. It featured a striking poster that said, ‘Refugee go home.’ Beneath it, in small letters, was the message, ‘He would if he could.’ This simple slogan captures the heart of the refugee plight. Refugees are people who have no choice but to flee their homes, forced out by war, violence, or persecution,” said Soufiane Adjali, UNHCR Representative in Serbia.
Nino Brajović, General Secretary of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia, highlighted Serbia’s experience in the 1990s, when the country accommodated 800,000 displaced persons, at one point nearly 10 percent of its population.
Journalists engaged in discussions with colleagues experienced in reporting about refugees, addressing topics such as protecting the identity of interviewees, empathy, professional conduct, avoiding sensationalism, and refraining from hate speech.
The workshop at the UNS Press Center also featured refugees from Burundi and Iraq who shared their perspectives on media reporting on those forced to flee.
Representatives from the Press Council, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, and the Ombudsman’s Office were also in attendance.
Soufiane Adjali, UNHCR Representative in Serbia, Belgrade, October 2024 ©UNS
Ljubimka Mitrović, UNHCR, Belgrade, October 2024 ©UNS
From journalists' perspective, Belgrade, October 2024 ©UNS
Participants of the workshop, Belgrade, October 2024 ©UNS
Participants of the workshop, Belgrade, October 2024 ©UNS
This activity was organized within the project “EU Support to Migration Management: Fostering the Integration of Refugees and Migrants” implemented by UNHCR Serbia in partnership with IOM Serbia and SCRM with the support of the European Union. The organizer is solely responsible for content that does not necessarily reflect the official views of the European Union.
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