CFAs: Global Media Competition on Labour Migration

This is especially important because of the impact that negative and stereotypical public narratives can have in terms of fueling discrimination and abusive practices towards migrant workers.

The competition is open to professional and student journalists and will be judged by a panel of international migration, forced labour and journalism experts. The winning entries will be selected according to a range of criteria that takes into account creativity, accuracy, balance and the positive portrayal of labour migration, including the multidimensional aspects of migrant workers’ lives.

Award Information

• Professional Award
  • Award categories: Three prizes on the topic of labour migration for professionals and one prize on the topic of forced labour and trafficking in person 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 2025.
    • 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  • Award categories: one prize will be awarded for a published or unpublished media piece recognizing exemplary reporting on labour migration.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 2025.
    • 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.
• To enter the contest, all participants must fill in the Online Entry Form. No postal submissions or e-mail will be accepted.
• Entries should fall into one of the following two categories:
  • Professional or
  •  Student
• 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.
• The ILO reserves the right to extend the duration and closing date of the contest or to cancel the contest if an insufficient number of quality entries are received.
• For the professional awards, entries of published media pieces must have been published between 31 October 2023 and 31 October 2024 to qualify. For the unpublished category, which can be submitted only by students, there is no limit of time.
• 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.
• Participants are responsible for the quality and appearance of their submission. The judges will make their decisions based on how it appears on a computer screen. No responsibility can be taken by the organizers for entries that are incorrectly submitted.
• The ILO reserves the right to disqualify any entry that contains hurtful, misleading, libelous or vulgar content, or that contains any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any national or international law or ILO standards.

For more information, visit International Labour Organization.