KUALA LUMPUR - The Young Humanitarian Journalists Competition 2021 organised by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) from Nov 2 to 30 aims to raise humanitarian issues, especially those related to International Humanitarian Law.
Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Associate Professor Dr Massila Hamzah, said this was the first time the faculty collaborated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to organise the competition.
"This competition is a call to action for young people, including students and media professionals, to act in a timely manner to report on humanitarian issues that are important and may have been overlooked,” she said in a statement today.
She added that the competition was supported by the National Press Club and the Malaysian Red Crescent Society, as well as various agencies from the humanitarian aid sector and academia.
"I hope we can inspire students and young media professionals to become responsible journalists capable of playing their role in reporting humanitarian crises effectively,” she said.
Meanwhile, head of the ICRC’s Regional Delegation in Kuala Lumpur Biljana Milosevic said the pandemic-driven shift to online platforms as the preferred method of communications has made it increasingly important to engage youths on the types of content they produce.
"Youths are themselves conversation starters and, in many ways, they play the same role that a trained journalist does, which is to disseminate information to the general public. It goes without saying that what they produce has the potential to influence public discourse,” she said.
The competition includes two categories in writing and video production through two themes, namely ‘The role of the media in reporting on humanitarian crises’ and ‘International humanitarian law: The nuclear ban treaty’.
For the first theme, participants may choose humanitarian topics such as the COVID-19 crisis, xenophobia towards migrants, among others, while the second theme focuses on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), a major topic of interest to Malaysia.
Winners in each category will take home RM1,000 (first place), RM700 (second place), RM500 (third place) and two consolation prizes of RM200.
The competition is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 in Malaysia, including Malaysians living abroad, and the final day for submission of entries is on Nov 30.
For more information, the public can refer to the competition poster or visit any of the co-organisers and supporting organisations’ websites.
- BERNAMA