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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 OCTOBER 2017 News MaltaToday blogger wins Thomson Foundation mobile journalism award MALTATODAY blogger Farah Abdi was awarded first prize in the MojoCon mobile journal- ism competition 2017 organised by the Thomson Foundation and RTÉ, Ireland's public broadcaster. Abdi, 22, staged an overnight vigil with her mobile phone out- side government offices in Val- letta to video the plight of fellow refugees sleeping rough to renew their identity cards. Farah braved cold conditions in January 2015 to spend the night using her iPhone 5s to film how refugees had to queue for up to two days for an ID card, because the government only dealt with them one day a week. After the report, then home affairs minister Carmelo Abela vowed to open a similar office at the Hal Far recep- tion centre for asylum seekers. "As a blogger and a refugee my- self I was tired of this injustice. I wanted to show the world the dif- ficulties refugees were facing in a European state which was sup- posed to protect their rights," Fa- rah said. MaltaToday executive editor Matthew Vella, who assisted Abdi in the production of the video, ex- pressed satisfaction at news of the award. "I met Farah Abdi back in 2014 when we discussed how she could start blogging for MaltaToday. Commissioning this piece was the highlight of our collaboration. It gives me immense pleasure see- ing that Farah saw off some tough competition to win this award, but I'm also proud that MaltaToday hosted Farah – it fills us with re- newed spirit to discover more op- portunities in mobile journalism." Abdi was recently living in Ger- many, arriving in Europe four years ago after fleeing Africa due to fear of persecution because of her gender identity as a trans woman. She travelled thousands of miles through sub-Saharan Africa, the Sahara and Libya with only a few cans of tuna and pineapple to survive on. A non- swimmer, she had never seen the sea before crossing the Mediterra- nean in a small dinghy crammed with fellow refugees. The human rights violations she witnessed are documented in her autobiography Never Arrive. The Thomson Foundation is a media development charity based in London. It was founded in 1963 and was the first charitable foun- dation with the specific aim of training journalists in developing countries. A panel of judges from the Thomson Foundation assessed the entries on originality, impact and editorial and technical skills. Nigel Baker, the foundation's chief executive, said: "The final- ists showed strengths in all four areas. But they all demonstrated skilfully how a mobile can be used to gain access and expose stories where a traditional TV camera might be too obtrusive. The com- mon thread was that all four pro- vided the viewer with an immer- sive experience, so you felt that you were living the stories." Farah was awarded her prize in May at the RTÉ Mojocon 360° conference in Galway, Ireland, which attracts mobile journalists, 360° specialists and content crea- tors from all over the world. "The growing number of entries every year demonstrates how the mobile phone has enabled a new generation of journalists," said Hosam El Nagar, director of inno- vation and learning at the Thom- son Foundation. "Farah not only produced an innovative piece of mobile journalism but she also made a difference to the lives of refugees in Malta." She was one of four finalists in the Thomson Foundation compe- tition, which attracted more than 80 entries from 28 countries. The other three were Olatunji Ololade, an investigative journalist with The Nation in Lagos, who filmed the plight of girls and young women coaxed into becoming suicide bombers in northern Ni- geria by Boko Haram; Magdalena Chodownik, a freelance journalist from Poland filmed the harsh con- ditions in Lunik IX, a "forgotten" community of Roma people in Slovakia; and Alyaa Abo Shahba, a journalist from Egypt who docu- mented noise pollution in Cairo. Somali blogger Farah Abdi filmed the plight of fellow refugees in Malta sleeping rough to renew identity cards Farah Abdi