Two Week Deadline!! Competition for Aspiring Journalists.

JRSEUROPE

Writing about asylum issues requires determination and courage.

The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Europe would like to reward aspiring young journalists who show these characteristics.

JRS is running a competition inviting student journalists to write an article of no more than 1,200 words on the theme ‘Access to Asylum’. Any student or recent graduate from any of the forty seven countries of the Council of Europe can take part.

“Entering the competition provided me with great experience because for student journalists the most important training opportunity is to get involved and write as much as possible” said Kirsty Whalley, a winner from 2006. She added that, “the chance to investigate my own topic, formulate my own ideas and have the article distributed amongst press and media really helped my current career as a journalist”.

The writers of the three best articles will be invited to attend a prize giving ceremony in Brussels where they will meet experienced journalists in this area and have their articles circulated to our press network. They will also be interviewed for a new Catholic television channel. The overall winner will be invited to a refugee camp in Malawi where they will met refugees, representatives of NGOs and local media.

Previous entry topics include:

· Suicide attempts among asylum seekers in Denmark;
· Detention in the UK;
· Deportation centres in Berlin;
· Crossing from Africa to the Canaries;
· Integration in the Italian job market;
· Destitution in the UK; and
· Filipino migrants in Denmark.

Further information and application forms are available on the JRS Europe website, www.jrseurope.org. Links to other organisations working with refugees and asylum seekers can also be found on the website. The deadline for entries is 22 February 2008.

The competition is supported by the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and MediaWise.

For more information please contact Elizabeth Underhill, Media Officer, JRS Europe at press.europe@gmail.com or tel: 00 32 2 250 32 20.

Jesuit Refugee Service Europe

The Jesuit Refugee Service is an international Catholic organisation. Its mission is to accompany, serve and advocate for refugees and forced migrants. The Jesuit Refugee Service Europe is a network of over 20 offices working in Europe with and for refugees and displaced people. JRS does not discriminate on the basis of religion.

JRSEUROPE

Prize winners of the JRS journalism prize will now receive publication opportunities with Irish magagazine 'The Researcher' (a monthly publication by the Refugee Document Centre), as well as a further opportunity to write for African publications when on the ground in Malawi.