The Exiled Journalists Network (EJN)– a self-help group devoted to
press freedom and assisting journalists who flee to the UK to escape
persecution – will be launched in Bristol over the weekend by a
gathering of more than 35 journalists from 20 countries.
“We have contact with more than 150 exiled media workers in the UK.
Too many people who have risked their lives to tell the public the truth have still not been granted refugee status,”
said Forward Maisokwadzo, himself an exiled journalist from Zimbabwe.
“We
hope the creation of the EJN will be another milestone in the long
process of defending press freedom. We will be looking for moral and
financial support from fellow journalists and media organisations.”
Bemma
Donkoh, UK representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
will be at the meeting, which is backed by NUJ president Tim Lezard,
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear, Independent columnist Yasmin
Alibhai- Brown and Channel 4 international editor Lindsey Hilsum.
The
EJN has been set up with the help of the Bristol-based MediaWise RAM
project, of which Maisokwadzo is project co-ordinator. The project aims
to improve media coverage of refugee and asylum issues. It plans to
register as an independent charity.
The conference, funded by the
Open Society Foundation, will take place at Bristol University’s
Burwall’s Centre for Continuing Education. It opens on the Friday
evening with a debate about how the UK media reports on the rest of the
world.
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