From Hungary to Austria to Germany and beyond, it is the story of the thousands of migrants escaping from Syria and Afghanistan that dominates the news, and the front pages of European newspapers prove the point. Tens of thousands of migrants are risking it all to seek refugee in Europe, leading to one of the worst migration crisis in history.
I sampled front pages of a variety of newspapers where headlines, photos and stories told the plight of the refugees, showing them as they arrived in Austria and Germany, where they have been welcome with open arms. Other countries, such as France and Britain are vowing to accept asylum seekers, too, but Germany leads the pack, pledging billions to deal with the crisis and stating that it could take as many as half a million migrants per year.
The pressure is also on the United States to take some of the refugees. This is going to be a continuous story of despair and hope during the next few weeks.
Take a look at the pages here!
Bild Zeitung: a protest edition without photos
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/08/bild-photos-aylan-kurdi-complaints
Highlight:
Germany’s best-selling newspaper has removed all pictures from its print edition and website in response to complaints about its decision to publish images of the three-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned trying to reach Greece.
A statement from Bild says the photo of Alan Kurdi, who died last week along with his mother and five year old brother, “caused dismay and compassion” and “rattled a million people awake”.
It likened the images of the boy, who was initially named by Turkish officials as Aylan, to the famous photo of a Vietnamese girl running from a napalm strike during the Vietnam war, adding: “The world must see the truth in order to change.”
Also:
http://blog.wan-ifra.org/2015/09/08/germanys-bild-removes-all-photos-from-web-site-and-print-edition
Getting It Right
Berlin's Berliner Zeitung (BZ) publishes an impressive guide for the thousands of refugees coming into the city. It is a four-page package all in Arabic.
Remarkable, and this is an example of how the old notions of service via your newspaper can be alive and thriving today. This is doing print effectively and serviceably.