ABSTRACT
The momentousness and complexity of the challenge posed by more than a million people resettling in Europe from different sociopolitical contexts in a few months required the balance and objectivity that are the hallmarks of ethical professional journalism. Paradoxically, the confidence crisis in news media that the refugee crisis magnified raised grave doubts about the role of journalism in democracy. European politics have already been roiled by institutions’ inability to tackle burden-sharing and to find a balance between competing humanitarian and security interests, universal and state rights, cultural pluralism, and liberal values. The emergency of arrivals might be over, but the task is far from done, and to fail to address it only exacerbates the sense of lack of control that already quashed solidarity, endangered the EU's unity, facilitated the rise of extremist parties to power, and made truthful, careful, humane journalism an enemy. Reporters seeking the true stories of refugee movements and integration despite obstructionism, dwindling resources, and personal trauma are increasingly met with public apathy or outright hostility. Their renewed commitments to telling the full and diverse story – a public good no social media can provide – might restore the public's trust before democratic deliberation itself is permanently imperiled.
