Role perceptions of journalists are no global monolithic professional features, but, as has been demonstrated by previous research, cultural differences between journalists operating in different countries are pronounced. These journalistic role perceptions form the central focal point of this study while zooming in on a highly debated news topic that has been covered intensely during the past few years: the so-called refugee situation. Our study uniquely combines survey results (N = 1267) with qualitative in-depth interview data (N = 30) collected among French- and Flemish-speaking journalists in Belgium as among Swedish journalists who have been reporting frequently on refugees. By exploring the challenges journalists experience while reporting on refugees, our results show that although in survey questions journalists from different regional origins express different role orientations, journalists from all covered regions express going through a similar process of negotiating their roles when reporting on refugees. The normative ideals of journalists can be strongly influenced by the concrete topic being reported on. Reporting on refugees follows its own logic. Journalists who report on refugees try to give concrete meaning to principles of both objectivity and empathy. © 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG