Asylum Aid has published a new report entitled Dividing Lines: Asylum, the media and some reasons for (cautious) optimism.
Asylum Aid has published a new report entitled Dividing Lines: Asylum, the media and some reasons for (cautious) optimism.
The report looks back at ten years of hostile media coverage of asylum and refugee issues, and asks how we might move onto a more positive public debate.
It argues, contrary to the perceptions of some commentators and observers, that the quantity of hostile stories is actually falling away, and that it is time for advocates of asylum justice to work more closely and cannily with journalists and editors.
There is a good deal worth contemplating in the report, though the huge recent outpouring of generalised anti-migrant sentiment from media and government may give reason for the caution in the title, and pose continuing communication challenges.
Asylum Aid is an independent, national charity working to secure protection for people seeking refuge in Britain from persecution and human rights abuses abroad.
It provides free legal advice and representation to the most vulnerable and excluded asylum seekers, and lobbies and campaigns for an asylum system based on inviolable human rights principles.
* The full report can be downloaded here (*.PDF Adobe Acrobat document): http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DividingLines_V3_highres.pdf
* Asylum Aid: http://www.asylumaid.org.uk
* More on asylum from Ekklesia: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/search/node/asylum