The first edition of the Migration Media Award will award 35 journalists from 16 countries for their journalistic excellence on migration in the Euro-Mediterranean region at a ceremony to be held on the evening of 14 June in Valletta, Malta, under the auspices of Malta’s EU presidency. The winning entries feature fact-based and impartial reporting on the complexity of migration, its many challenges and opportunities.

The 12 first-prize winners for the four categories of video, print, online or radio in the English, French or Arabic languages come from eight different countries: Sameh Ellaboody, Ahmed Shalaby and Abdelrahman Ayyash from Egypt; Marco Panzetti, the team Marco Stefanelli, Nerina Schiavo and Nadia Lucisano from Italy; Fouzi Bendjama from Algeria; Catarina Santos from Portugal; Daniel Trilling from the UK; Elisa Perrigueur, the Egypt-based team François Hume-Ferkatadji and Jenna Le Bras from France, and Salaheddine Lemaizi from Morocco. A multimedia prize will be presented to Migration Matters from Germany as an additional first prize.

The Migration Media Award is a new EU-funded journalism competition bringing together four partners based on the initiative of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). The EUROMED Migration IV and OPEN Media Hub projects, funded by the EU, developed the scheme in partnership with the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and Malta’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion.

An international jury, composed of senior journalists, evaluated over 120 applications. “This kind of reporting does great credit to the cause of public-interest journalism,” said jury member Aidan White from the Ethical Journalism Network. “It shines a powerful light on the humanitarian and policy challenges of the recent ‘migration crisis’. The authors raise questions that cannot be ignored and challenge those who come up with easy answers.”

The award is the first EU-funded activity that addresses the various challenges that journalists face when it comes to conducting balanced and fact-based reporting on migration. These challenges and barriers were identified in the recently launched study entitled “How does the media on both sides of the Mediterranean report on migration?” in which journalists from 17 countries examined the quality of migration media coverage in 2015/16.

The OPEN Media Hub project, funded under the OPEN Neighbourhood Programme, aims at creating a virtual media hub spanning the EU’s two neighbourhood regions – south and east – in order to contribute to the development of independent media and to a more accurate presentation of EU policies, through the creation of a network of journalists. The OPEN Media Hub provides skills to journalists and media managers through the fostering of professional networks, the provision of hands-on workshops, of journalist exchanges and support to audio-visual and online production.

The Euromed Migration project aims to support EU Member States and the Southern Partner Countries in establishing a comprehensive, constructive and operational dialogue and co-operation framework, with a particular focus on reinforcing instruments and capacities to develop and implement evidence-based and coherent migration and international protection policies.

Read more

Press release

Migration Media Award website

Follow a live streaming of the award ceremony on Facebook

OPEN Media Hub website

Euromed Migration website