The first prize of the 'For Diversity. Against Discrimination' journalist award has been won by two Dutch journalists who work for the magazine Vrij Nederland.
The winning article deals with ethnic and racial discrimination in the jobs market in The Netherlands. The second and the third prize were won by articles from Poland and Ireland respectively. The award for the photo category also goes to a Dutch journalist of Vrij Nederland. The winners of this year's awards will be officially announced today at a prize ceremony in Brussels by Vladimír Spidla, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.
At today's ceremony, the
European Commission will honour those journalists who have helped bring the public's attention to the issues of diversity and discrimination in the workplace.
“It takes courage and dedication to bring to light stories that are not always guaranteed to make the headlines,” explains Commissioner Špidla. “The winning journalists have given people in Europe an insight into some of the most challenging issues facing our society today.”
The award is granted as part of the five year EU
information campaign 'For Diversity. Against Discrimination.' The winners will receive a
grant ranging from 1.000 to 3.000 Euro for a research trip to an EU country of their choice.
The winning article, "Er wordt gediscrimineerd. Punt uit.”, was written by the Dutch journalists Sander Donkers and Harm Ede Botje, who work for the magazine Vrij Nederland. It looks at the issue of ethnic and racial discrimination in the labour market, particularly against young Muslims, a situation relevant for many European countries. The second prize goes to the Polish article “Miłuj geja swego” by Edwin Bendyk and Jacek Żakowski, published in the magazine Polityka. The article highlights the issue of discrimination against gays and lesbians in Poland. In third place, the Irish journalist Fiona Ness, from the newspaper Sunday Business Post, was nominated for her article, “Disabled and Dismissed”. The article highlights the issue of discrimination against people with disabilities in employment.
The EU Journalist Award in 2005 also included a photo category. The winner of this category was chosen by the national juries from an EU-wide selection of entries. The European jury decided to nominate one overall winner for the photo category. This award goes to Joost van den Broek with the picture "Multicultural composition of employees in Dutch companies", published in Vrij Nederland.
The winning entries were selected from over 600 articles and photos from all Member States, submitted during the course of the year. All entries were judged according to their newsworthiness, relevance, depth of research, and originality.
Juries in each of the 25 Member States selected national winners to go forward to the European award. An EU jury made up of media and antidiscrimination experts then selected the 3 winners.
The “For Diversity. Against Discrimination” EU Journalist Award 2006 was launched for the third year running on 27 April 2006. Print and online journalists from all 25 EU Member States are invited to submit their articles at
www.stop-discrimination.info.
The deadline for entries is 31 December 2006.
For more
information about the Journalist Award 2006, or to read this year's winning articles please visit www.stop-discrimination.info.
European funds
