On Saturday, April 21, CAIR-Columbus Legal Director Romin Iqbal participated in a “Reporting on Race and Hate” workshop attended by news directors and reporters from across Ohio. This workshop was put together by the Ohio Association of Broadcasters and the National Association of Broadcasters Educational Foundation.
The workshop focused on educating journalists reporting on issues of race, religion and hate groups. It also covered topics relating to stereotypes, intrinsic bias and journalistic failures. The workshop was conducted by Kevin Benz of i-Media Strategies. The discussion on issues of media coverage of religion and Americans Muslim was facilitated by Iqbal.
“For a small minority like Muslims in America, it is very important for the media to cover issues relating to Muslims in a non-stereotypical and balanced way,” said Iqbal. “We hope that our discussions today will assist Ohio media in covering Muslims better. Most of the coverage of Muslims is through the terrorism lens, and this one dimensional coverage of Muslims is not an accurate representation of a very diverse and large community.”
CAIR published a book titled American Muslims: A Journalist’s Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims, to help enhance understanding of Islam and Muslims in the news media. To date more than than 35,000 copies have been distributed to media professionals, journalism departments of universities, and libraries nationwide. Journalists interested in receiving a copy of the publication should send an email to publications@cair-columbus.com.