The Reporting Europe prize for 2013 has been awarded for a story that I edited about the exploitation of Romanian and Bulgarian labourers in Britain.
Sorana Stanescu, a TV journalist based in Romania, received the award at a ceremony in Westminster, central London, on 13 May.
Sorana Stanescu (left) and I pose with the prize against the Westminster skyline.
Her story, published by Balkan Insight and the New Statesman, revealed how the UK’s labour restrictions had left migrant workers underpaid and vulnerable to exploitation.
The Reporting Europe prize is organised by UACES, the world’s largest European studies association. Past winners include journalists from the BBC, The Economist and the International Herald Tribune.
Dr Martyn Bond, a jury member and deputy chair of the London press club, described the winning story as “particularly apposite” and “well-written”.
“The whole question of migrant labour in a highly developed economy… is illustrated through this,” he said. “But it doesn’t do it in a preachy didactic manner. It does it through a human story. And that’s the best sort of journalism.”
“It gives us facts behind the fictions… that we hear trotted out daily in the political ding-dong that passes for serious debate here on the immigration issue.”
The ceremony included a short discussion, where Stanescu and I joined the chair of UACES, Helen Drake, to talk about the background to the story and its impact.
The report was produced for the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.
Neil Arun 