The Council of Europe Division on Migration and Refugees (DMR) has released the summary report of the first Roundtable on fact-based communication on migration which was organised by DMR on 7 November this year.
The event was held in a hybrid format, gathering more than 120 participants, including twelve international migration and communication experts, as well as journalists and institutional representatives, who examined the escalating impact of misinformation, disinformation, and related hate speech and hate crime targeting migrants and refugees.
The roundtable stressed the need for a coordinated, multi-level approach to address this complex phenomenon. It was proposed that such an approach should combine immediate digital monitoring and enforcement measures with long-term preventive strategies. Suggested avenues include strengthening ethical journalism and newsroom diversity, providing targeted training for media professionals, fostering local community engagement initiatives, and using arts and culture to communicate the human realities behind migration.
Experts also proposed practical next steps for future action, such as developing evidence-based guidance on when institutions should issue pre-emptive warnings about expected disinformation campaigns and when they should focus on correcting false narratives already circulating.
The report provides a roadmap for future work and underscores the need to promote accurate, responsible and human-rights-based communication on migration.
This initiative is a contribution towards the New Democratic Pact for Europe.
