Newspapers in Belgium published Islamophobic articles about the Hijab, which neglected to feature the voice of Muslim women, after a Belgian court ruled that a believer’s desire to wear outward signs of his or her belief is not a protected criterion under the discrimination laws.

German right-wing populist politician for Alternative für Deutschland published a Facebook post about the Green Party candidate for the chancellorship, Annalena Baerbock, ‘exposing’ her supposed ties with George Soros, in an antisemitic dog whistle to further his political campaign.

German media widely disseminated unsubstantiated claims that Muslim and migrant populations were the majority of Covid-19 intensive care patients, scapegoating them for the impacts Corona virus pandemic.

In a Greek progressive mainstream daily publication, an artist created a cartoon to comment on attempted governmental reforms, using imagery painfully similar to that of the Auschwitz concentration camp. These comparisons are not new, and are always criticised for being offensive. So why do they continue?

“Don't vote for Miss Provence because she is Jewish”, “Miss Ile-de-France, isn’t she the girl who works at the wok of Bondy?” and “[Miss France 2014] Mixed race is the cancer of white race". These are only some of the online reactions to the Miss France beauty pageants of the last 20 years, whenever contestants, or winners, were people of colour or, as in the latest case, of Jewish background. Their legitimacy to represent France, or a French region, was contested on the basis of their background and skin colour.

Are all acts of terror treated the same by the media? The December bombing in Nashville was another reminder that the news tends to treat certain perpetrators differently to others. In the UK, headlines were personable and encouraged justifications. This is vastly different to how Islamic terrorism is reported, a trend which many have been observing for some time.

Drawing on journalist testimonies and audio recordings, a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio liberty has revealed pervasive government interference in Hungary’s public broadcaster. Specific instructions to portray migrants and left-wing politicians in a negative light confirm the findings of research conducted by Get The Trolls Out.

Advertising is one of the core ways many news outlets generate money to keep their operations running. In recent years, there have been several campaigns set up to target advertisers who choose to display their content on platforms which host hate. This month, we saw the success of one such campaign run by Sleeping Giants in France, who got Decathlon to pull their advertisements from CNEWS, a problematic TV channel known for hosting hate.

The murder of a teacher in the Paris suburbs has sparked a wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric across France, with politicians and media commentators popularising far-right narratives about the ‘Islamisation of Europe’. Instead of instigating a respectful debate about extremism and freedom of expression, much coverage failed to distinguish between the religion of Islam and the tiny minority that carry out acts of terror.

Belgian political party Vlaams Belang launched a new campaign in which they refer to the city of Antwerp as ‘Antwerpistan.’ The term takes inspiration from the term ‘Londonistan’, which has been used in right-wing circles for years to signal a supposed “Muslim invasion” in the city and brings with it dangerous connotations.

This month in both Greek and UK media, refugees and migrants were described using dehumanising and derogatory language. Why does the media use language like this, and what are its effects?

A French journalist at Le Figaro associated the 9/11 terrorist attack with an innocuous video of a food-blogger, simply because she was wearing the hijab.

Harmful stereotypes of submissive Muslim women and criminal Muslim youth can be reproduced even without explicitly hateful statements. Asking insinuating questions and not challenging false and discriminatory remarks all add up to create a misleading image of the Muslim community.

A news outlet in Belgium excused antisemitism at a yearly carnival parade on the grounds that it was something historically and culturally Belgian. Instead of examining the issue, the author downplayed the antisemitic elements.

Pro-government media outlets in Hungary inflate minor news from Western European media, carefully and exclusively selecting stories about violence committed by Muslims or migrants. These stories are repackaged to change their original meaning, presenting brutality as the norm, with the goal of endorsing the government’s anti-Muslim and anti-migration agenda.

Some news outlets are selectively focusing on minorities when covering people breaking coronavirus restrictions, spending more time highlighting the Muslim or immigrant backgrounds of these people instead of the restrictions which were broken.  

Using inflammatory language, media platforms in Germany and the UK used the Islamic Eid al-Adha celebration to paint Muslims as barbaric. The coverage was biased and used hostile language towards Muslims.