Global Media Competition on Labour Migration

Since 2015, the International Labour Organization and its partners have organized an annual Global Media Competition to recognize exemplary media coverage on labour migration and fair recruitment.

Recognizing and promoting ethical and quality reporting is increasingly significant, as media can promote a toxic public narrative reinforcing prejudice, intolerance and stigmatization against migrant workers and their families.

The Global Media Competition contributes to support the production of quality reporting and raising awareness about labour migration, which is a topic that features strongly in the United Nations Declaration on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.

Objective

The objective of the competition is to recognize exemplary media coverage of labour migration by encouraging professional and student journalists to submit a piece of their work, whether it be in the form of a written article, photo essay, multimedia material, video or radio.

Submitted entries should:
  • 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.
  • Portrays migrants’ contribution to the social and economic development of countries of origin and destination without overlooking the negative aspects of the labour market situation of migrant workers (e.g. often a hard reality of abuses, exploitation and violation of human and labour rights).
  • Demonstrates creativity and accuracy. For more information on how to understand, find and tell a story on forced labour and fair recruitment, including concrete tips for improving media productions and story ideas, see the ILO toolkit for journalists: Reporting on forced labour and fair recruitment.
  • Uses non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing terminology. The use of the right words is key for quality reporting, to avoid stigmatization and positively influence the debate on migration. The ILO Media-friendly glossary on migration provides a list of rights-based terminologies and language that the UN supports.

Awards

Winners are announced each year on 18 December, international Migrants day. They are selected by a panel of experts in international migration and journalism.

Prices have included cash prices as well as fellowships to participate in an online course of the International Training Centre of the ILO on fair recruitment or labour migration topics.

Partners

The ILO is organizing this annual Global Media Competition since 2015 in collaboration with its various partners, including the International Trade Union Confederation, the International Organisation of Employers, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Federation of Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Equal Times, Solidarity Centre, and Migrant Forum in Asia.

The competition is also organized with the support of the European Union funded project REFRAME - Global Action to Improve the Recruitment Framework of Labour Migration (2017-2022), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) funded project FAIR - Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment – Phase I (2015-2018), Phase II (2018-2022) and Phase III (2022-2025) and the Bridge Project  financed by the US Department of Labor.