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The 1994 Michener Award Winner - CKNW/98
Ottawa, May 12, 1995.
CKNW/98, New Westminster, was the winner of the 1994 Michener
Award for its powerful coverage of the issues surrounding a British
Columbia power project because of its perceived threats to salmon
stocks and the environment. The radio station was among 6 finalists
chosen from 51 entries competing for the award.
Shirley Stocker, executive producer of
the CKNW's public affairs programming, accepted the award from
Governor General Roméo LeBlanc, himself a former broadcast
journalist and host of the award ceremony held at Rideau Hall.
This marked the 25th year of the Michener Award since its
inception in 1970 under the auspices of the late Governor General
Roland Michener. His Excellency praised the Michener approach to
rewarding good journalism by saluting news organizations and thereby
giving recognition to all the people who participate in the
development of stories. He said that " good journalism is a team
event and the award goes to the team". (full
text of his award night speech)
CKNW's talk show host, Rafe Mair, was a potent force in the British
Columbia government's decision to kill the billion-dollar completion
of the Alcan power project. Mr. Mair began his opposition of the Alcan power project,
on environmental and fisheries grounds, in early 1994
and never stopped until the project was defeated. Media colleagues,
critical and otherwise, acknowledged the power of his campaign.
Sub-sequent harsh criticism by a special inquiry of the federal
fisheries department would lend support to his stand, especially in
the context of the East Coast cod disaster and growing concerns
about threats to the West Coast salmon stocks. Rafe Mair's work has
made him a Michener finalist three times since 1989,
The recipients of the 1995 Fellowship were Sue Ridout of
CBC-TV, Vancouver, and Pierre Sormany, a freelance journalist
from Quebec.
Ms Ridout was selected for her proposal to study the
cultural relativism of journalism ethics.
She will examine the
ways in which cultural background can influence ethical
decision-making among journalists working for news media serving
Vancouver's ethnic communities. Immigration is drastically altering
British Columbia's population mix with an influx of more than 50,000
newcomers, mostly from Southeast Asia, settling largely in the
province's lower mainland. In that context, Ms Ridout asks, "how do
we as journalists go about representing their interests and
concerns?"
She worked as a researcher in
1978-79 for the project officer of TV Ontario and from 1980-1988 was
with several CTV television programs, the last as producer of W5. She joined
CBC that year as producer of the TV show Monitor and moved to
Vancouver in 1989 as senior producer in the current affairs
department. Currently the executive producer of
television news and public affairs at CBC-TV in Vancouver, Ms Ridout plans
to complete her fellowship at the Centre for Applied Ethics at the
University of British Columbia. (Ridout
fellowship
report)
Pierre Sormany has been involved with many sociological and
economic projects that precede his successful fellowship proposal to
examine "the new social contract" Canadians must adopt because of
the national public debt burden. The resulting social spending cuts
affect more than two million jobless Canadians who must cope with
the steady erosion of the social safety net. "The problem is not
just an absence of wealth but the absence of mechanisms to
distribute this wealth among the citizenry" says Mr. Sormany. His
studies will include a cross-country assessment of Canadians most at
risk in the austerity campaign and the mechanisms that can ease
their plight. He also plans to produce a TV documentary for Radio-Canada.
He has been a journalist since 1971, first as a
business writer with Le Soleil. He worked as a free lancer from
1976-1983 in print and broadcast, mainly in the fields of science
and medicine. He served for two years as an advisor to the Quebec
ministry of science and technology and returned to journalism as a
contract employee of Radio Canada in 1987. He lectures at the
Université de Montréal and is the author of Le Métier de
journaliste, a standard reference work for the teaching of
journalism in Quebec.
Introduced in 1987, the fellowships of the Michener Award
Foundation are to advance education in the field of journalism and
to foster promotion of the public interest through values that
benefit the community. Each year, one or two fellowships have been
awarded to mature journalists who wish to use four-month
study-leaves to enhance their ability to pursue public service
journalism.
The judges for the 1994 Award said they were impressed by the
continuing high quality of public service journalism represented in
the 51 entries despite continuing austerity for many news-gathering
organizations. The six finalists were chosen by the narrowest of
margins.
Finalists
Honourable Mention: Le Devoir, Montreal, for a series
of reports by senior reporter Sylvain Blanchard on flawed tax-collection practices in Quebec which led to
the resignation of a senior official and improvements to the tax
system proposed by a special expert committee. The series reported,
for instance, that some 113,000 taxpayers had been accused of
improprieties without much hard evidence. One reform: A presumption
of innocence until proven otherwise.
Citations of merit were awarded to:
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The Edmonton Journal, for a series of projects providing a
broad range of community public service, including one which sought
to temper public over-reaction to teenage crime; another that
analyzed human stresses caused by many factors; and another which
covered ways and means to strengthen the family unit. The Journal
initiatives were bolstered by popular public forums, often with
community agencies.
The Daily Herald, Prince Albert, for a tenacious enquiry into
spending practices by municipal politicians and officials. Findings
by Herald reporter Greg Urbanoski
generated the principal issue of the Prince Albert 1994 municipal
elections and dealt a harsh political lesson on the failure to meet
public expectations of probity. All but one of the incumbent city
councillors seeking re-election, lost his job.
The Telegraph Journal, Saint John, for the precedent-setting
tribute by an English language news-paper to New Brunswick's 30,000
francophones. The First World Acadian Congress was held in Moncton
last year attended by several hundred thousand. Telegraph Journal
reporters visited Acadian exiles in Louisiana and Massachusetts for
numerous feature stories, profiled the original Acadian families and
repeated much of the material in a special supplement for the
congress. The newspaper reported a gratifying rise in circulation
but an even more satisfying wave of thanks - and surprise - from the
other language group.
The Toronto Star, for a detailed record of abuse of public
trust involving a police inspector, a lawyer, an accountant and a
banker, plus reluctance of police and legal watchdogs to intervene.
Star reporter Kevin Donovan's pursuit began in 1986 and
eventually prompted investigations by the RCMP, national revenue,
and the Law Society of Upper Canada. The Law Society eventually
charged a millionaire Bay Street Lawyer with three counts of
professional misconduct and five of conduct unbecoming a lawyer.
Judges for the 1994 Michener Award:
Arch MacKenzie, Chair of the judging panel; former Ottawa bureau
chief of the Canadian Press and the Toronto Star; Jeannine Locke,
former journalist with the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, the Ottawa
Citizen and the Toronto Star; now-retired CBC film-maker; Marilyn
MacDonald, former Atlantic provinces magazine and CBC journalist,
now director of public relations at Dalhousie University, Halifax;
Barry Mullin former ombudsman, Winnipeg Free Press, now journalism
lecturer at the University of Winnipeg; Guy Rondeau, former bureau
chief, Canadian Press, Montreal.
Judges for the 1995 Fellowship:
The Honourable D. Keith Davey,
Senator (Chair of the Judging Panel); Sandy Baird, former publisher, The Kitchener-Waterloo
Record; Françoise Coté,
Quebec author and journalist; Jodi White, Vice-President of
Corporate Affairs at Imasco Limited, Chair of the Public Policy
Forum.
The Michener Award is unique in its emphasis on the degree of public
benefit generated by an entry and by its weighing of the
news-gathering resources available to the competitors.
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