Winners of SUITCASE 2024 Journalism Awards announced

This contest, which marked its 14 years, encourages quality media coverage of forced displacement and migration issues. The goal is to draw increased public attention toward displacement and migration processes and to contribute to the advancement of quality journalism.

The event was organized by the Migration and Citizenship Service (MCS) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, and “People in Need” international organization,  The evaluation committee has reviewed 96 materials submitted by 48 journalists.

During the event, welcoming speeches were delivered by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Armen Ghazaryan, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia H.E. Ambassador Vasilis Maragos, UNHCR Representative in Armenia Monica Sandri, and Head of the “People in Need” NGO Varduhi Dadunts.

In her welcoming remarks, Monica Sandri, UNHCR Representative in Armenia, noted that as of June 2024, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide had exceeded 122 million. “Quality coverage of refugee issues is of paramount importance in order to ensure their smooth integration into host communities,” she noted.

SUITCASE 2024 Grand Prix was awarded to EVN Report’s journalist Arshaluys Barseghyan for her article – “Armenia as a Refuge: Who’s Seeking Asylum?” [Armenian version: «Հանգրվանը՝ Հայաստան. ովքե՞ր են ապաստան հայցում»].

The Second Prize went to Factor TV’s journalist Araks Mamulyan, for her research on myths spread among people displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh (please watch below, in Armenian).

 

 

As an exception, by the decision of the Jury, two Third Prizes were awarded in the framework of SUITCASE 2024 contest:

One of the awards was handed to “Investigative Journalists” Lena Sahakyan, Armen Ghazaryan, and Seda Grigoryan for the film “Artsakh, September 19: Interrupted Childhood” (in Armenian) and the other award went to News.am’s journalist Taguhi Melkonyan for her journalistic study titled “The Blood of Indian Migrants Saves Lives in Armenia: The Hidden and Visible Sides of Migration with Facts” (in Armenian).

 

The following journalists received Encouragement Awards for their coverage of repatriation, labour migration, forced displacement, and other important topics:

An Encouragement Award was presented by the Diaspora Commissioner’s Office of Armenia to EVN Report’s journalist Gohar Abrahamyan for her article titled ““Welcome” to Armenia’s Experience With Repatriation” (version in Armenian: «Բարի եկաք․ հայրենադարձության հայկական փորձը»).

The Armenian Caritas organization established an Encouragement Award, which was received by journalist Sona Hovsepyan for her article titled “No more warm words. Why ruble devaluation and xenophobic policies are making Russia less attractive for Armenian migrant workers,” which was published in Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Rima Grigoryan, from “Investigative Journalists,” received an Encouragement Award for her journalistic stories titled “Do you want me to tell you about our war?” (please watch below, in Armenian) and “When I fall asleep, it’s Hadrut, when I wake up, it’s Vanadzor” (in Armenian).

 

Radar Armenia’s journalist Hayk Magoyan received an encouraging award for his extensive articles “Armenia on the ‘rocky’ path to visa liberalization” (in Armenian) and “To become or not to become a citizen of the Republic of Armenia: why are Artsakh Armenians hesitating?” (in Armenian), which address extremely important issues.

Suzanna Ohanyan and Ani Balayan, representing Hetq Media Factory, received an Encouragement Award for the material and film titled “Sitting on a suitcase” (please watch the film below, in Armenian).

Armenia Today’s journalist Nare Nersesyan received Encouragement Prize for three of her articles submitted to the competition: “A handful of soil brought from Artsakh has sprouted” (please watch below, in Armenian), “How can Artsakh residents benefit from state support for purchasing an apartment” and “One year without Artsakh: A chronology of the 2023 Azerbaijani attack and the deportation of indigenous Armenians” (all the materials are in Armenian).

Wrapping up the event, Ms. Nelly Davtyan, Head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of Armenia, highly appreciated the cooperation with the mass media and the role of the media in shaping public perceptions. “In general, it seems to have become a tradition that there is a stable team of certain media outlets that works with us and produces such high-quality results. We acknowledge and fully appreciate our cooperation and the importance of generating high-quality media content,” noted Nelly Davtyan.

The official part was followed by a reception, during which the journalists received congratulations from the organizing parties and the invited partners.

SUITCASE 2024 journalism contest was implemented with co-funding by UNHCR and People in Need, which was funded through the Migration Partnership Facility (MPF) of the European Union.

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