2017

Should there be limits on freedom of expression?

Can words and pictures lead to conflicts?

Do journalists confirm stereotypes and prejudices?

How can journalists use international human rights in their work?

Challenges in the contemporary world – how to report?

The complexity of and challenges in the contemporary world raise difficult dilemmas for journalists. How to report? How to cover the influx of refugees and asylum seekers, immigration issues and right-wing rhetoric? What about radicalisation and extremism, gender issues, homophobia and blasphemy? What language should be used? What is the right angle? When is it appropriate to provoke? When is it not?

These questions and many others are the topics of this new online manual for educators:

Training Manual - Intercultural Understanding, Human Rights and Ethics in Journalism.

The manual is an educational tool for teachers of journalism, media and communication who want to raise the students’ competence on issues related to diversity, intercultural understanding, human rights and ethics. It will also be useful for practising journalists, editors, other media workers and students interested in human rights and the world around.

The manual´s eleven sessions include:

• Journalism in Multicultural Societies
• The international Human Rights System
• The European Human Rights System
• The Philosophical Foundations of Freedom of Speech
• Freedom of Expression as a Human Right
• New Media – Irreversible Changes in Journalism
• Representation, Identity and Discrimination in Journalism
• Journalism and Diversity
• “The Others” through History and Today. The Role of Media in Mass Communication
• Journalism and Gender
• Accountability of Journalists

Participatory teaching methods are included in all sessions. Such methods represent active, exploratory, exciting and inspiring forms of learning. In addition to lectures and in-depth articles, the sessions include descriptions of group work, exercises, energizers, assignments and links to external resources and films.  

A long-term Norwegian-Russian partnership

The authors are professors and lecturers at universities in Russia and Norway, as well as representatives from the Human Rights Academy (HRA). The manual is the result of a long-term partnership between departments of journalism education at universities in Norway, Russia and Sweden, and the HRA. In the context of the projects’ many activities, the partners have developed educational resources and tools, which now are included in the manual.

The manual is a timely resource. In recent years, the international community has underlined the importance of including intercultural understanding, human rights and ethics in journalism education. Relevant international documents are listed in the manual, among them the most important, the UN World program for Human Rights Education.

We hope that stakeholders in Scandinavia, Russia and elsewhere in the world will benefit from the manual’s training resources while educating future journalists.  

• Training Manual - Intercultural Understanding, Human Rights and Ethics in Journalism
    

Students from Norway, Sweden and Russia attending a workshop in multicultural understanding and human rights at the University College of Volda (Norway).