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Quarterly e-Magazine January - April 2021 #WeAreALF Issue Nº 8 - June 2021 Editorial n 6 March 2021, Dr Nabil Al Sharif, Executive A special thought goes also to the colleagues at the O Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, sadly ALF Secretariat who have lost a guide and an passed away. Dr Al Sharif served the Anna Lindh example. Foundation from September 2018 until the day of his passing away. We will always remember him and we will pray for his Soul to rest in peace. As a tribute to Dr Al Sharif, we report below the announcement made by Mr. Ralf Lorig, Chairman of In silent grief and with my deepest sympathy, the ALF Board of Governors, on 6 March 2021. --- Ralf LORIG Chairperson of the Board of Governors Anna Lindh Foundation Dear colleagues, It is with a very heavy heart that I need to inform TABLE OF CONTENTS: you that Dr. Nabil Al Sharif, Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, passed away. Intercultural Research Pages 2 – 5 Covid-19 has taken away a great Professional, a . Intercultural Cities and Page 6 - 7 learning Diplomat, and especially a Friend and a great Man of Dialogue. ALF Virtual Marathon Pages 7 – 8 It has been a pleasure and an honor to get to know . Young Mediterranean Pages 8 – 9 him and his approach to work and to life. His always Voices positive attitude will be missed. Grants Page 10 On behalf of the Board of Governors I would like to . ALF National Networks Pages 11 - 28 share our sincerest condolences to his wife, Madam Manal, his children and all the people who loved . AGENDA: Upcoming Pages 28 – 33 him. Networks’ Activities ANNA LINDH FOUNDATION QUARTERLY E-MAGAZINE – ISSUE N°8 INTERCULTURAL RESEARCH • Covid-19 has made encounters between journalists and people at the grassroots level more challenging, which is INTERCULTURAL TRENDS RESEARCH problematic as journalists depend on talking to people in different life situations, including migrants which found themselves in a particularly vulnerable situation. CROSS-CULTURAL REPORTING AND EUROMED MOBILITY – In this regard, it was also highlighted that the restrictions to 5TH INTERCULTURAL TRENDS AND MEDIA PLATFORM travel presents an obstacle to foreign reporting on migration and data-collection for academic purposes. • Journalists often face difficulties with editors to publish stories on migration at a time where news focus is on issues related to the pandemic. • While migrants do receive some press coverage after having arrived in the destination country few articles cover their journey from the country of origin. • Migrant communities have also been blamed for high infection rates Covid-19, which may lead to stigmatization and migration, is too often portrayed in the media as a problem. The following recommendations were expressed, with regards to how the Foundation and other actors in society could promote nuanced and dialogue-driven media discourses. • More testimonies and stories from migrants themselves are needed for a nuanced public debate on the issue. Furthermore, more attention needs to be given to the initiatives led by migrants themselves promoting integration. • More media coverage is needed to shed light on the equal distribution of vaccines so that migrant communities would not end up treated worse than the majority population. s the pandemic has fueled the spread of fake news, • The media should bring nuance to the public debates on A populist discourses and disinformation journalists, migration by telling the stories of for example, families staying academics and civil society were brought together during the in their countries despite difficulties with the pandemic or 5th Intercultural Trends and Media Platform organised by the otherwise. Anna Lindh Foundation and the Mediterranean Universities • Media literacy is important in order to promote dialogue and Union (UNIMED) on 8 April 2021. mutual understanding in the media. • Education is crucial to promote dialogue and diversity and The discussion focused on media coverage on migration, one way of doing so is through mixed schools where children mobility and coexistence within multicultural societies in the of migrants and the host communities go together. Euro-Mediterranean region. PREPARATIONS UNDER WAY FOR SIXTH INTERCULTURAL During the meeting, the Anna Lindh Foundation offered TRENDS AND MEDIA PLATFORM participants insights from the latest ALF-Ipsos Intercultural Trends Survey 2020 which gathered the views of over 13.000 he next edition of the Intercultural Trends and Media people from the region. Some of the statistics help to offer T Platform will take place on the 18th of May and it will focus evidence contradictory to certain narratives dominating the on cross-cultural reporting on environmental issues and news-cycle. Specifically, on the theme of migration, the climate change. Intercultural Trends Survey of 2020 reveals that 40% of Europeans would stay in their country of origin if they would be given the chance to start a new life somewhere else whilst the same number in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean was 49 %. Furthermore, of these people only 20% would like to go to Europe. During the roundtable, reflections some of the issues highlighted include: 2 ANNA LINDH FOUNDATION QUARTERLY E-MAGAZINE – ISSUE N°8 DISCUSSING HATE SPEECH AT THE THIRD INTERCULTURAL a decrease in hate speech. But, on the other hand they may MORNING COFFEE ON THE 21ST OF APRIL lead to censorship of free speech. he Third Intercultural Morning Coffee brought together Recommendations T two alumni of the Intercultural Trends and Media Platforms to discuss and reflect on issues relating to diversity in cities and It is encouraging to see that the European Commission is the media's portrayals of cultural, religious and ethnic taking measures to tackle hate speech, misinformation minorities. and disinformation More discussions are needed on how to encourage and The meeting started with a brief presentation by Atte Oksanen, engage social media companies to regulate the content contributing author for the Fourth Anna Lindh Intercultural published on their websites, especially illegal material that Trends Report. In his introduction, Oksanen gave an overview about how research on hate speech has developed during the is inciting violence. last 10 years and the challenges that hate speech poses in the Euro-Mediterranean area. During the meeting it was noted LAUNCH OF THE ANNA LINDH INTERCULTURAL TRENDS that hate speech online has evolved from a marginalized and DATA HUB fringe phenomenon to something mainstream and common. This is seen in how journalists and academics are targeted he Anna Lindh Foundation launched the Intercultural online. Something equally worrying is also that these people T Trends Data Hub which permits users to review and targeted do not always report their experiences to the compare data from the Intercultural Trends Survey in 2020 authorities. along with the three earlier editions of the Survey. All five editions of the Survey are based on a combination of polling Concerns were also raised with regards to social media being with more than 52,000 citizens in the EuroMed countries. used as the main source for news for many people. Yet, it was also recognized that, at times, social media has offered a “By examining values and social change for the last 10+ years, platform for information sharing that permitted free speech users of the Intercultural Trends Data Hub may discover many and exchange of information in an otherwise censored media interesting correlations and patterns that could suggest new landscape. research questions and areas of study. Users may also discover that countries that are geographically far apart are in fact very Specifically, regarding the issue of migration, it was recognized similar with regards to the values respondents hold”, said that social media is a particularly powerful forum that shapes Eleonora Insalaco, Head of Operations and Intercultural public perceptions, even though it would not be the only used Research at the Anna Lindh Foundation when describing the source of news online. Hence, a challenge is not only to Intercultural Trends Data Hub at the Welcome Webinar of the counter fake news but to counter fake impressions and online course on Intercultural Trends in the Euro- perceptions, regarding for example, the phenomena that push Mediterranean. migrants to leave their countries of origin. The Intercultural Trends Data Hub is accessible here: With regards to promoting living together in multicultural http://alf.uni-med.net. settings, it was noted, based on the findings of the Intercultural Trends Survey of 2020, that one’s level of FOURTH EDITION OF THE INTERCULTURAL TRENDS religiosity was not necessarily correlating with one’s level of REPORT – PROGRESS: tolerance towards others, which was much more essential in determining people’s values vis-à-vis diversity. he ALF received in March all draft analytical articles by T identified authors to the Anna Lindh Report 2021. The With regards to polarization in our societies and in online articles are currently being edited. To support the authors with communities, it was also noted that acceleration of hate drafting the articles and using the Intercultural Trends Data speech does not happen overnight but instead is a slow and Hub, Ipsos MORI organized virtual drop-in-sessions. Authors of steady process, of which there is a history as well particularly the Report have also been requested to make 3 minutes videos in Europe. – sharing some of the reflections/key findings already presented in your articles for the Report and these audio-visual Regulations on social media were considered as both a threat materials will be integrated into the Online course on and an opportunity. On the one hand, regulations may lead to Intercultural Trends in the EuroMed region. 3 ANNA LINDH FOUNDATION QUARTERLY E-MAGAZINE – ISSUE N°8 FOURTH EDITION OF THE COURSE ON INTERCULTURAL Furthermore, the course includes two online meetups of which TRENDS IN THE EURO-MEDITERRANEAN the first one was organised on 25 March and the second one on 8 April.