3.4 MEDIA – STIRRING AND COUNTERING HATRED Sensationalising media reports on the origin and development of COVID-19 can result in scapegoating, stirring racist and xenophobic attitudes. In February, the Spiegel (the largest German weekly) featured the title “Coronavirus. Made in China” on the front page.211 A German tabloid showed a picture of a Chinese family at lunchtime on a page reporting on how COVID-19 arrived in Germany.212 Newspapers in Denmark, France and Ireland213 published similar stories and images, subsequently apologising for being inappropriate or for offence caused. Political and media statements linking online COVID-19 to migration or minorities can also stir hate speech. For example, the mayor of a city in Slovakia called on his Facebook page for locking down a Roma settlement, as people returning from abroad were not obeying the obligatory 14-day quarantine period,214 gathering a large number of racial and xenophobic reactions in comments. In January 2020, a blogger in Latvia posted a video about the alleged arrival of a person with COVID-19 in Riga. He stated “generally those Chinese [censored] should be liquidated, the entire country should be […].” He was arrested on the same day and charged with incitement to ethnic hatred.215 The video was removed. Civil society organisations and people of Asian origin are also using social media to respond to hate speech by collecting information about xenophobic incidents and raising awareness. The campaign “hashtag Iamnovirus” reportedly started in France (#Jenesuispasunvirus)216, but similar initiatives followed in many other countries, such as Austria, Italy, Germany and Spain217. In the Netherlands the online petition “We are no viruses!” (‘Wij zij geen virussen!’)218 was launched on 8 February in response to a song titled “Prevention is better than Chinese” broadcast on the radio. 36 PROMISING PRACTICE: ETHICAL AND RESPONSIBLE MEDIA REPORTING ABOUT COVID-19 The Ethical Journalism Network published guidance with tips on how to report accurately on COVID-19, including how to avoid racial profiling, sensationalism and scaremongering. Ethical journalism network (2020), Media ethics, safety and mental health: reporting in the time of Covid-19, available at https://ethicaljournalismnetwork. org/media-ethics-safety-andmental-health-reporting-in-thetime-of-covid-19