| PRESENTATION OF THE DIVERSITY TOOLKIT BACKGROUND The idea for a diversity toolkit originated from a grouping of the EQUAL development partnerships (programme for combating discrimination funded by the European Social Fund) and the EBU's Eurovision Group for Cultural Diversity. The general idea for the programme is to promote diversity in the media and in particular in television.
This training tool is mainly intended for editors-in-chief and journalists specializing in news, current affairs and reporting. The diversity toolkit was launched at the international conference held on 22 & 23 November 2007 by France Télévisions and UNESCO in cooperation with WDR, ZDF and the EBU on the theme of 'Diversity/Integration: a major role for the media and a challenge for European public service broadcasting'. CONTENTS The toolkit comprises a 120-page file and a DVD of rights-free news items. 1/ The first part of the file is an analysis of news items sent in by the public television services in Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, UK, Finland, and others.
The items are subtitled in English and are grouped into six themes.
For each theme:
- A list of general questions to journalists
- A brief presentation of the background is given for each item
- Then a series of questions and talking points is given for that item.
- The first theme, 'balanced representation' deals with the issue of stereotypes and the way that televised news can slot people with an immigration background and the visible minorities into preconceived roles. Four items are provided for analysis and comparison. The first two are reports from Finland about Somali refugees in Finland and the last two are from Belgium and are about crime rates in Brussels. - The second theme is checking facts. It aims to show the importance of checking facts so that stories are not simply based on suppositions. Six items are provided for analysis. They are reports for which the information sources have not been corroborated. For example, one of them is a report from England about the disappearance of a girl whose father is Pakistani. The report shows that a link was made between the disappearance, a kidnapping and a forced marriage without the facts being corroborated. - The third theme, 'Who do we see?', tackles the diversity of viewpoints and the variety of subjects in which 'minorities' may appear on screen. Six items are provided for analysis. They aim in particular to show how 'visible minorities' are often shown although they are not asked for their opinion. - The fourth theme, 'Who chooses the stories?' is about the type of stories covered. Six items are provided. They present, in particular, examples of 'minorities' shown in various settings (daily neighbourhood contacts, job hunting, etc.) and items in which discriminations are exposed. - The fifth theme, 'to go further', questions to what extent the minorities present on screen are accepted with their cultural specificities. Four items are provided. They propose in particular debates on polemic issues such as wearing a veil. - The last theme provides items that are not news items but were considered innovative in the way they present 'minorities'. For example, one of the items is a Dutch programme Bimbos and Burqas, in which three young Muslim women discussed the issue of Islam in the Netherlands. 2/ The second part of the file provides a series of initiatives by various broadcasting corporations. These are a series of suggestions and concrete ideas for mobilizing the management or for the recruitment, training and promotion of qualified professionals from minority backgrounds. The 'good practices' are classified into various categories: - the choice of subjects and the way information is handled,
- recruitment and diversification of journalists' profiles,
- evaluation of progress without necessarily introducing quotas,
- managing diversity. | 
