Global Media Competition on Labour Migration & Fair Recruitment

Thematic Areas

• Issues and thematic areas of labour migration are as follows:
  • The focus could be on various aspects of decent work such as fundamental principles and rights at work, including freedom of association of migrant workers and their protection against discrimination, racism and xenophobia, social protection including health protection for migrant workers, their working conditions (particularly their wages, working time and occupational safety and health). The situation of migrant workers in an irregular situation and/or those working in the informal economy could also be a focus.
  • How international recruitment practices impact migrant workers’ lives, their effective enjoyment of decent work as well as their exposure to risks related to exploitation and abuse, gender-based violence, child and forced labour and trafficking in persons, and/or how labour recruitment across international borders, when properly regulated and governed can improve skills and job matching both in origin and destination countries and the effective functioning of labour markets.
  • Illustrate how COVID-19 and other crisis affect international recruitment practices and migrant workers’ lives.
  • Show examples of: recovery measures; lessons learned; positive contributions of migrant workers during the pandemic, such as migrant care or health workers.

Award Details

• Professional Awards
  • Award categories: three prizes on the topic of labour migration for professionals will be awarded.
  • The prizes will be awarded for published media pieces (including but not limited to written press, photo essay, multimedia, podcast, video, and/or radio) recognizing exemplary reporting on labour migration.
  • Prize: Each of the winners of the professional award for a published media piece will be able to choose between two prize options:
    • Paid fellowship (course fees, only for a maximum of two winning co-authors per media piece) to participate in an online ITC-Turin course on a fair recruitment or forced labour or labour migration related topic in 2024; or
    • a cash prize of $1,200 USD.
• Student Award
  • Award categories: one prize will be awarded for a published or unpublished media piece recognizing exemplary reporting on labour migration.
  • Prize: The winner of the student award will be able to choose between two prize options:
    • Paid fellowship (course fees, only for a maximum of two winning co-authors per media piece) to participate in an online ITC-Turin course on a fair recruitment or forced labour or labour migration related topic in 2024; or
    • A cash prize of $500 USD.

Eligibility Criteria

• For the professional awards, this contest is open to media professionals and professional journalists who are 18 years of age and older. For the student award, this contest is open to students from journalism schools/universities who are currently enrolled in a journalism school or university curricula.
• For each entry submitted the author should indicate which type of production is being submitted: written press, photo essay, multimedia, video, radio (referred to below as “media pieces”). Published print and online submissions should not exceed 8,000 words, podcast, radio and video submissions should not exceed 25 minutes.
• A maximum of two entries may be submitted by any one participant.
• A submission in any language is welcome. However, an English, French or Spanish translation should be included if parts of the submitted material are in a language other than English, French or Spanish. The translation must be faithful to the original. The English, French or Spanish versions will be the one judged.

Judging Criteria

• All submissions will be judged on the following criteria:
  • Creativity
    • Displays information on the situation of migrant workers and labour migration issues in an innovative fashion;
    • Presents creative solutions to overcome labour protection and labour market integration challenges;
    • Ensure multi-dimensional stories, including aspects around migrant workers’ interaction with their local communities (friends, neighbours, colleagues, employers, family etc.) and other stories that serve to humanize them and not reduce them to their condition of migrant.
  • Accuracy
    • Gathers material using first hand sources and/or second hand sources that are properly referenced;
    • Portrays a balanced reporting giving due consideration to the different points of view of the stakeholders concerned;
    • Includes an English, French or Spanish translation which must be faithful to the original meaning if parts, or all, of the submitted entry are in another language.
  • Protection and non-discrimination
    • Protects individuals or groups in vulnerable situations, sources and other sensitive components of the story by not providing unnecessary information that could risk harming them (including visual identities, names, locations etc.);
    • Media pieces should be non-discriminatory and/or promote non-discrimination.
    • Benefits of well-governed and safe labour migration.
    • Highlights the benefits of well-governed and safe labour migration, including fair recruitment and/or raises awareness of the risks and dangers of irregular, unsafe and/or badly governed labour migration, including recruitment.
    • Sheds light on success stories and positive practices, presenting, as much as possible the positive results of fair labour migration governance.

For more information, visit International Labour Organization (ILO).