Speech by His Excellency the
Right Honourable Edward Schreyer, on the occasion of the presentation of the Michener Awards for Journalism.
Rideau Hall, November 8, 1980
I am happy to welcome you all here tonight. At least this time, you
will be too busy talking about yourselves to gossip about us for a
change!
We are honoured tonight with the presence of two of my distinguished
predecessors, both of whom have a special rapport with tonight’s
ceremony; One, the Right Honourable Jules Léger, because he was once
a newspaperman himself and the other, the Right Honourable Roland
Michener, because the award bears his name. It is a very real
pleasure for me to welcome them and their charming wives on your
behalf.
The Michener Award is granted to a news organization thought of
having performed "the most outstanding public service in journalism”
during the preceding calendar year. News media people are indeed
“public servants" in that they keep their readers or viewers
informed, aware and alerted to current events, trends, philosophies
and opinions. We are lucky to live in a country which cherishes its
freedom of the press and we must jealously guard this freedom.
The print and electronic media play a major role in this country.
Some journalists are more familiar to us than many of the people
they write about. It is important to protect freedom of speech in
our media. It is also important to ensure that journalists continue
to pursue ideals and exemplify professionalism.
For this reason, we must make the effort to recognize the merits of
our journalists and the quality of their work. It therefore gives me
great pleasure to pay tribute to the finalists for their fine
showing and to congratulate the winner of the 1979 Michener Award.
You have earned our respect and the respect of your colleagues. A free and
dynamic press is the cornerstone of democracy and I encourage you
all to ensure that it remains so. I
also urge you to continue working towards making our media of
communications the best in the world. Congratulations and
best wishes to you all.
Thank you - Merci.
His Excellency the Right Honourable Edward Schreyer
Governor General of Canada
November 8, 1980