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Young radio professionals open Radio MIG in Marrakech

In the lead-up to the United Nations High-Level Conference to formally adopt the for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, UNESCO opened 鈥鈥, a temporary radio station operated by young community journalists from the southern Mediterranean region and sub-Saharan Africa. The radio station is unique in its approach as it gathers young people from the region to strengthen their abilities in reporting on stories that media cover migration, but also hate speech, as the two in many aspects are closely related.
This initiative is being implemented by UNESCO offices in Rabat and Dakar, within the framework of the Spanish-funded project 鈥淧reventing Violence and Promoting Gender Equality through media in Morocco and Senegal鈥, under the umbrella of UNESCO鈥檚 International Programme for the Development of Communication, as well as by project 鈥 jointly launched with and co-financed by Canada. Radio MIG builds on the work to empower youth in the region carried-out since 2014 under , an EU-funded project that is also contributing to the implementation of this experience. The in Morocco is also supporting Radio MIG, which is operated by the Maghreb/Machrek community media platform .
One of the young radio professionals from Morocco, Ms Chaimae said, 鈥淭he role of media is crucial in the integration of migrants in our region. Participating in this radio project is an amazing opportunity, as we definitely need to address the coverage of migration in the media.鈥
This was reiterated by another young professional from Senegal, Ms Sylvie, who said, 鈥淭his opportunity is very important for me as it allowed me to cover international events and train on specific topics. It is also a great human experience that allow us to exchange, live and share our different cultures鈥.
The young journalists are preparing shows, gathering guests, recording and broadcasting leading up to the High Level Conference. The temporary radio station will continue to operate during the conference and the young professionals will be able to develop their journalistic skills in covering the events in Marrakech on topics such as hate speech, migration and gender issues.
Resources:
- To find out more about countering hate speech, read UNESCO鈥檚 鈥淐ountering Online Hate Speech鈥 by clicking .
- To share the countering hates speech poster in your newsroom in three languages, click for English, for French and for Arabic.
- You may also like to read UNESCO鈥檚 new publication, Journalism, 鈥楩ake News鈥 and Disinformation, which touches on verifying news and information, a theme for one of the apps at the hackathon.
International Programme for the Development of Communication:
To find out more about the projects supported by the IPDC, .
This project has been supported by the Spain Fund in Trust partnership with UNESCO.
The International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) is the only multilateral forum in the UN system designed to mobilize the international community to discuss and promote media development in developing countries. Since its creation in 1980, the Programme has successfully mobilized over US$110 million to strengthen the capacity of media in 140 countries.