Newspaper editors should continue to strive for consistently high standards of fairness and accuracy in reporting asylum, refugee and race and community relations issues.

They should recognise the human rights of individuals and highlight personal stories behind the public debates, a new report has said.

The advice came after research found that while most press reporting was not hostile, some material, particularly in the mass circulation newspapers, contained potentially inflammatory language.

The report includes examples of bad practice, such as the interchangeable use of the terms migrants, immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants, without making it clear that they have different meanings.

The Information Centre for Asylum and Refugees analysed the content of 50 newspapers, including national, regional, faith and ethnic community papers, during a ten week period.

And its report, put together for the Home Office, said broadening and improving the quality of reporting would help raise the level of public debate.

It claims some reporting of the politics of asylum and refugees is unbalanced and some coverage breaches Press Complaints Commission guidelines.

But it also includes examples of good practice, including extracts from the Manchester Evening News, which was praised for being informative and avoiding common stereotypes of asylum seekers as victims.

A number of recommendations were also made to newspapers, the PCC and the Home Office.

It said newspapers should use their columns to examine the media industry’s representation of public debate on issues of controversy. They should produce journalism that questions, and goes beyond narrow and immediate political debate on asylum policy, to stimulate an informed debate on the issues raised by asylum and refugee protection and integration.

It also said the PCC should consider reissuing its editorial guidance notes annually. It called for them to be modified to take into account changing political circumstances and issues highlighted by complainants, and for the commission to meet with refugee community organisations to ensure that vulnerable groups are aware of its role, as similar bodies often do not exist in their countries of origin.

Society of Editors director Bob Satchwell welcomed the report but reminded the authors that the survey of newspapers – conducted in 2005 – was two years old and since then there had been further advances on reporting these issues.