OSCE Office announces results of contest on reporting on human trafficking

BAKU, 21 October 2013 – The OSCE Office in Baku has announced today the results of the contest for media reports highlighting the problems of human trafficking and forced labour in Azerbaijan.

The contest organizers sought to identify the best investigative reports on human trafficking produced from January 2012 to August 2013 in three categories: sexual exploitation, forced labour and child exploitation. An evaluation committee representing international and civil society organizations reviewed some 30 articles submitted by journalists from various print and online media outlets and selected three winners:

Farman Nabiyev from the regional Mingachevir Ishiqlari newspaper for his article “Victims,” that addresses local stereotypes within the society and discrimination against victims of sexual exploitation;
Kamran Mahmudov from the Azerbaijani Service of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for his video report called “The US report on Trafficking in Persons” investigating human trafficking in Azerbaijan; and
Elena Ostapenko from the Gun.az news portal for her article “Lost childhood – How to protect Azerbaijani children from exploiters?” as the best article investigating child exploitation in Azerbaijan.
This contest was part of a project to support efforts against human trafficking and forced labour, implemented with the financial support of the USAID Azerbaijan.