Guidelines for the application of the Rome Charter: A working tool for accurate media coverage on migration and asylum

These guidelines developed by the Association Carta di Roma present different ways of improving the quality of journalism on the topic. A couple of pages are dedicated to each group of articles in the Rome Charter, giving practical information on each of the topics:

- the importance of terminology

 - how to cover migration within the current affairs news;

 - principles to respect when interviewing migrants, asylum seekers and refugees;

- how to report on political debates;

- how to use statistics and opinion polls for reporting;

- attention to be made using different sources of information: local, online information, international journalists and local media sources;

Every chapter ends with practical recommendations and guidelines on how to deal with the specific topic and then provides further clarifications in a Q&A format. At the end of the report, a "diversity checklist" is provided with questions journalists can ask themselves in order to assure a better coverage of migration-related topics in their writings.

The refugee crisis in 2015 confronted media professionals with pressing ethical challenges. Valuable insights assesing how media stood up against this challenge in 2015 are represented by the Ethical Journalism Network report Moving Stories, examining media coverage of migration in Europe and in selected countries across the globe during 2015. With respect to the Italian case, the report by cartadiroma.org Border news assesses the Italian media coverage of the refugee crisis in 2015.