Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco, as well as many Arab and foreign countries, have been a shelter for refugees, especially Syrians, with 4 million refugees, the largest number in recent history. This reality took the issue of refugees out of its humanitarian scope and brought it into social, political, economic, and security complications which was reflected in the Arab, local and international media. In order to investigate the reflection of refugees in the media, the media monitoring unit in Maharat Foundation in Lebanon and Jordan, and  the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, and the Research and Documentation Unit in Egypt and Morocco, prepared a study on the media coverage of refugees in the four mentioned countries.

The study focused on answering questions related to which media covered refugee issues the most, the topics related to the refugees and in which context. It also covered who speaks about the refugees and to what extent refugees appear to be key players in this coverage. The study was prepared during 2015 till February 2016.

The study recommended that civil society organizations and human rights organizations should contribute to spread the culture of these refugees’ acceptance in the society through seminars, workshops and studies. In addition to the importance of raising awareness of their rights to life and dignity and follow-up with the process of registration and seeking to solve the problems of those whose applications are rejected.

The study stressed that the lack or the absence of media coverage is negatively affecting the culture of accepting refugees and displaced people temporarily in the host communities. So media should intervene more strongly to highlight the social, economic and health problems of refugees.

To read the full study click here.