A community news magazine is celebrating an awards double for refugee reporting.

Greater Govanhill writers Sadia Sikander, Tabassum Niamat and Pinar Aksu took home both the winner and runner-up accolades in the ‘celebrating independent media’ category at last week’s Refugee Festival Scotland Media Awards 2025.

Sadia was commended for her personal piece ‘Facing Hatred With Hope’, which first appeared in Issue 16 of the magazine as part of series responding to last year’s racially motivated riots in England.

It documented the challenges she’s faced as a refugee in Scotland, including societal hostility, systemic barriers, navigating unfamiliar systems and finding employment.

Left to right: Alison Phipps, Sadia Sikander, Tabassum Niamat and Pinar Aksu.

After receiving her award, she thanked Greater Govanhill for giving her the chance to write for the magazine.

“My heartfelt thanks to the entire team for creating a platform that enables voices like mine to be heard, and for supporting stories that reflect lived experiences with honesty and depth,” she said.

Community and human rights activists Tabassum and Pinar collected their awards as runners-up in the same category for their jointly-written article ‘These are our Neighbours’: Three years on from Kenmure Street, what’s changed?’

The piece reflected on a day on whichi hundreds gathered to challenge Scotland’s hostile immigration system and highlighted the changes in the system that followed.

The awards were presented by Alison Phipps, UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages.

She said: “Journalists, politicians and academics are the first ones targeted when war breaks out, particularly when we are in the midst of genocidal campaigns. The independent media is often the one that saves the day.

“Over the many years I’ve been witnessing the Refugee Festival I’ve really seen this incredibly exciting category of independent journalism grow from initiatives like Greater Govanhill coming together to sustain and support people to do journalism, seeing refugee journalists being recognised and finding a way of being recognised…seeing that as a legacy and a history we can be proud of in Scotland of independent and independently-minded journalists doing their work.

“Independently-minded journalists are often not the easiest of people, but according to a report I was part of written by UNESCO, they are the ones who make the change at the grassroots level, they are the ones who are stubborn and tenacious and creative and make things happen. This is what we saw in this category.”

Other winners at last week’s awards were:

Features
Lindsay Bruce, Press and Journal: From refugee to royal recognition, the remarkable story of Aberdeen professor Mirela Delibegovic

News
Hamish Morrison, The National: English riots gave me ‘flashbacks’ to being hunted by trafficking gang

Broadcast
Tara Fitzpatrick, STV: ‘Skills being wasted’: Calls to lift ban on work for asylum seekers

Local Media
Donald Erskine, Glasgow Times: Visa rules leave Glasgow’s Ukrainian refugees ‘unemployable’