60% of the news about Islam in 6 Spanish newspapers is Islamophobic
2 October 2018 | Corporate news
La Vanguardia, El Mundo, La Razón, 20 minutos, El País and eldiario.es have published in 2017 news, interviews and opinion articles on Islam and Muslims who fall into Islamophobia, although in different proportions depending on the newspaper. This is confirmed by the Observatory of Islamophobia in the Media, which in its first annual report (corresponding to 2017) has identified and evaluated 1659 reports from these media.
This report was presented today at the IEMed in an event with the two co-directors of the Observatory, Lurdes Vidal (IEMed) and Pedro Rojo (Fundación Al Fanar), the journalist Carme Colomina and the CIDOB researcher, Moussa Bourekba.
According to the Observatory’s working methodology, 60% of news have been categorized as Islamophobic, either because they contain Islamophobic ideas (title / subtitle and / or text and image), or -without being explicit- they favor Islamophobic interpretations.
It should be clarified that there are notable differences according to the media analyzed. In this sense, La Razón and El País are the newspapers that published the greatest majority of Islamophobic texts. As for eldiario.es, 66% of its contents do not incur any degree of Islamophobia.
A qualitative analysis gives the Observatory the possibility to identify the positive or negative tone of the information analyzed, which allows interesting readings when compared by topic (the following are considered: terrorism, women, women’s clothing, radicalism and refugees ). In this sense, it should be noted that those contents that deal with women have a negative tone in 65% of cases, or that 90% of the news about Islam present it in a negative aspect.
The Observatory of Islamophobia in the Media is an initiative of the IEMed and the Al Fanar Foundation, which has the support of Casa Árabe, the Tres Culturas Foundation and the Euro-Arab Foundation. Its aim is to identify examples of Islamophobia in the newspapers with the objective to promote, in collaboration with the media, an accurate and balanced journalism, aware of its role in promoting an inclusive society.
The 2017 report of the Observatory entitled An Unquestionable Reality. Islamophobia in the Media also includes valuable articles from journalists and experts, such as Felipe Sahagún, Ghufran Khir Allah and Moussa Bourekba. The working methodology of the Observatory, as well as articles and analysis of journalistic contents or recommendations and good practices can be consulted on the website www.observatorioislamofobia.org.