Participants to the 2017 Migration Journalism Fellowship Programme, hosted by the ILO and the Ethical Journalism Network, meet for an intensive training workshop in Beirut at the outset of the fellowship.

The purpose of the training programme is to equip the journalism fellows with the knowledge, strategies and networks in order to produce high quality reporting on labour migration within the Arab States. The fellows will take part in a series of lectures, exercises, Q&A sessions and panel discussions on the following topics:

• Labour migration, forced labour and human trafficking;
• Labour migration in the media, and the link to public perceptions and attitudes;
• Ethical journalism and the challenges to investigative reporting;
• Digital storytelling;
• Reporting on legal and corporate human rights issues;
• Ethical considerations in the use of migration images; and
• Use of rights-based and gender-sensitive language. 

Presenters to the training include experts with a diverse range of backgrounds, including representatives from the Maharat Foundation, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, Panos South Asia, Migrant-Rights.Org, Legal Agenda, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, as well as the Ethical Journalism Network and the ILO.

The fellowship is part of a comprehensive initiative to promote fair migration (including fair recruitment), and contribute to the elimination of human trafficking for forced labour across the Arab States region, implemented by the Regional Fair Migration Project in the Middle East (FAIRWAY), with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).