Ok Senior Journalist Md Owasim Uddin Bhuyan has received the first prize of the prestigious Migration Media Award in Bangladesh consecutively for the last two years under the national newspaper category in the country.
Mr Bhuyan, currently a freelance journalist, received the first prize as the recognition of his special reports on labour migration and trafficking issues in Bangladesh.
New Age, Dhaka based daily newspaper, published the award-winning reports with title of ‘Labour migration equals trafficking in Bangladesh’ and ‘Sending Workers Abroad: Bangladesh counts only number, not quality’ respectively in 2019 and 2018.
Mr Bhuyan covered the labour migration issues as New Age Senior Staff Correspondent from September 2012 to May 2020. He also worked for United News of Bangladesh (UNB) from August 2006 to August 2012 after completing BSS (Hons) MSS in Mass Communication and Journalism from University of Dhaka.
As Bangladesh Correspondent of The Cheer News, he has been writing migration and development issues for the news portal. Besides, he keeps contributing to migration reports for The Guardian UK and also writing as a freelance for Prothom Alo English in Bangladesh.
The Migration Media Award was presented under the European Union (EU) funded ‘Bangladesh: Sustainable Reintegration and Improved Migration Governance (Prottasha)’ project, implemented by International Organization for Migration (IOM) in partnership with BRAC led by the government of Bangladesh.
On Thursday (December 24, 2020), a total of 13 journalists and one media organization in Bangladesh, including Md Owasim Uddin Bhuyan, won the prestigious Migration Media Award for their outstanding contribution in 2019 to the migration sector through their contributions made in the form of news updates, articles, and other initiatives, according to a press release.
Attending as chief guest, Bangladesh’s Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad handed over the awards to the winners at the Migration Media Award ceremony held at BRAC Center Inn.
Each award recipient was presented a plaque, certificate of recognition, and prize money.
Maurizio Cian, Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh, Giorgi Gigauri, Chief of Mission, IOM Bangladesh, and BRAC’s Executive Director Asif Saleh, senior director KAM Morshed and Head of Migration Programme Shariful Hasan were present at this event.
In early 2020, journalists submitted their reports focusing on migration and related issues produced in 2019. A Jury comprising representatives from the MoEWOE, Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s), academia, and journalists evaluated the reports and selected 13 journalists under five categories namely: National Newspaper, Local Newspaper, National Television, Radio, and Online News Portal, the organizer said in a press release.
