Cecil Rosner is the recipient of the 2004 Michener-Deacon Fellowship. He is bureau chief for CBC English Television News in Manitoba and also senior producer for CBC News: Disclosure. The Fellowship was presented to him by Her Excellency Adrienne Clarkson during the Michener Award night ceremony held at Government House in Ottawa, April 15, 2004.
Mr. Rosner has been a journalist for 29 years. At the Winnipeg Free Press for 11 years, he covered several beats including city hall and the law courts. He is co-author of ‘When Justice Fails – the David Milgaard Story‘.
During 15 years with the CBC, Mr Rosner has been senior producer and executive producer for 24 Hours, the CBC Winnipeg investigative unit. In 2000, he became bureau chief for CBC News: Canada Now. In 2001 he created and was the founding senior executive producer of CBC News: Disclosure. He contributed to CBC News teams that won Michener Awards in 1991 and 2000.
Mr. Rosner was awarded the Michener-Deacon Fellowship for his proposal to research a book about the history of investigative journalism in Canada and the contemporary issues surrounding the subject. “By drawing attention to the failures and foibles of society, the investigative journalist plays a role in prompting new laws, new policies, and new ways of assessing individuals and institutions,” Mr Rosner wrote. “Sometimes this is not to the liking of powerful interests.” In the same week that the RCMP raided the home of an Ottawa Citizen journalist seeking information about confidential sources, Justice Mary Lou Benotto ruled in a landmark case that the tools of investigative journalism are important to the functioning of a democratic society. The Fellowship provides for four months leave to carry out the work described in the application.
Cecil Rosner Fellowship Report on Investigative Journalism (submitted November 14, 2005)
Rideau Hall – April 15, 2004
Jury for the 2004 Michener-Deacon Fellowship:
Lindsay Crysler (chair), former managing editor The Gazette, Montreal; former director, journalism department, Concordia University, former adjunct faculty member, school of journalism, University of King’s College, Halifax; Clinton Archibald, associate professor of public policy and management, Faculty of Administration, University of Ottawa; Montreal; Claire Helman, former film-maker, National Film Board; former public affairs broadcaster, CBC Radio; former lecturer in communications at a Japanese university; Shirley Sharzer, former journalist, Toronto Telegram, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail; former faculty member, University of Western Ontario Journalism School.
The Fellowship of the Michener Awards Foundation, introduced in 1987, is known today as the Michener-Deacon Fellowship (named after the late Roland Michener and the late Paul Deacon, a senior media executive and Michener Awards Foundation President). This fellowship is to advance education in the field of journalism and to foster promotion of the public interest through values that benefit the community. Mature journalists are invited to submit written outlines for studies over four months that will strengthen their competence.