Speakers: Tetiana Pechonchyk and Lisa Essex
Moderator: Milica Pesic (Moderator)
December 4th, 2020, 17:25-18:00 CET
This discussion was organized in cooperation with the European Journalism Centre.
Written by Lea Siebel
Key words: LGBTQ+ Rights, Minority Journalism, Human Rights Journalism
Short annotation, summary
Due to rising homophobia in Eastern and Central Europe, comprehensive, investigative journalism that is independent from the distorted lens of state-captured media is needed to better understand homophobia, give a voice to minorities and develop solutions. The session elaborated further on the worrying developments in Eastern and Central Europe and provided journalists with a toolbox on best practices, terminology, resources, and current issues.
The project or approach to be discussed in the session
Reporting on LGBTQ+ rights violations in Eastern and Central European countries. It was discussed how to best approach this type of reporting and what the challenges are.
Limitations, risks of the approach provided by the speaker
Risks are of course the possibility of being arrested or sanctioned for reporting on suppressed minority groups. Furthermore, a journalist may also be faced with an editor that does not want the journalist to report on LGBTQ+ rights violations or topics associated with it.
Takeaways
Events have ensured better speaker selection, diversity of race and gender, and a global reach.
1. Gay rights are human rights. Journalists should report on threats to and violation of gay rights.
2. Journalists should not wait for stories "to fall in their lap" or people to approach them. Rather, they should actively approach NGOs and other civil organisations to find stories of people who are not getting coverage
3. Having the right resources and tools as well as the appropriate terminology is crucial to better understand the issues that LGBTQ+ people face and also results in more unbiased, multi-layered reporting.