What’s it like to leave your country and profession and try to start all over again? How do you do this – when your new country’s media is often hostile to those seeking asylum? What is hate speech and how it has been manifested in the narrative depicting refugees and migrants? To what extent are journalists aware of what discourse amounts to hate speech? How do journalists navigate online hate speech against migrants and refugees? Where are the refugees’ voices in the coverage?

The symposium will start with a live recording of City, University of London’s The Knowhow Podcast . You are invited to be part of the audience of this special edition ‘Refugee Voices’ which is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science.  we will be talking to refugees about their experience. Hosted by Dr Lindsey Blumell and Dr Glenda Cooper, the event will draw on current research into how asylum seekers are portrayed in the UK media and use the accessible medium of a live recording event to allow you to hear real voices telling their stories, which may challenge preconceptions about how we see those who have been forced to leave their homes

The podcast will be followed by a discussion panel of journalists and experts, sharing their experience and reflecting on media coverage of refugees and what can be done to combat hate speech against them in the press.

The panel features Laurence Lee, Al Jazeera English, Tom Parry, Daily Mirror, Caroline Bannock, the Guardian, Dasha Ilic, Media Diversity institute, Dr Glenda Cooper, City, University of London and will be chaired by Dr Zahera Harb, City University of London.

The panel is organised as part of ‘Silence Hate’, an EU-funded project led by COSPE and a coalition of civil society organisations, including Media Diversity Institute (MDI).

The project aimed to raise awareness about the importance to counter hate speech through the development of tools for teachers and a new narrative on migration issues for journalists.