Tag Archives: journalism awards

| Media

Radio-Canada dominates Judith Jasmin award nominations

Apparently unaware that Friday isn’t the day to announce things you want actually covered, the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec announced on Friday the nominees for its seven annual Judith Jasmin awards.

The awards, considered the most prestigious in Quebec journalism, will be handed out at the FPJQ’s annual conference in St. Sauveur on Nov. 17.

Radio-Canada dominates the nominations, with nine overall and at least one in every category except opinion. Five of the nominations are reports done for Enquête, the rest for regular Téléjournal newscasts. La Presse and L’actualité also have multiple nominations with three each. Other nominees are Le Devoir, Le Droit, Jobboom, MSN.ca, La Voix de l’Est and The Gazette, all with one each.

Quebecor media outlets are notable in their absence (except for Jobboom), either because they never submitted stories or because what was submitted wasn’t nominated.

The nominees are below, along with links to the reports where they are available online so you can read or watch them yourself.

Entrevue / Portrait

Journalisme de service

Enquête

Nouvelles – Médias nationaux

Opinion

Nouvelles – Médias locaux et régionaux

Grand reportage

| Radio, TV

Local broadcasters win regional broadcasting awards

RTNDA Canada (Radio and Television News Directors Association) is putting out awards like a drunken award-giver. The latest batch is the central region awards, of which there are 35 recipients, including “honorary mention” awards. When the medium is restricted to broadcasting, the language is restricted to English and the geography is restricted to Quebec and Ontario, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that some Montreal media are winning these awards.

Nevertheless, journalists deserve praise for their work over the past year, as marginally prestigious as it may be.

The full list of winners is here. Among Quebec (and by that I mean Montreal) media:

CTV Montreal was the big winner, picking up three awards:

  • The special report Dirty Little Secret (Part 1, Part 2) by Caroline van Vlaardingen, about how easy it is to get sexual services at massage parlours, won the Dan McArthur Award for in-depth/investigative reporting
  • The special report Caught in a Trap by Catherine Sherriffs, about the dangers to animals of traps in wooded areas, won the Dave Rogers Award (large market) for long features
  • The station also won the Hugh Haugland Award (named after a CFCF cameraman who died on the job) for creative use of video
CJAD won the Peter Gzowski Award for news information program for its reporting on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. Host Ric Peterson gives his thank-yous on his blog. Clips from the report can be listened to on the show’s podcast page.

The Ron Laidlaw award for continuous coverage went to CBC Montreal for coverage of last year’s Richelieu flood. An honourable mention went to Global Montreal for its coverage of the same floods.

| Media

QCNA award noms show the struggles of some

As the big guys were patting themselves on the back this week over the National Newspaper Award nominations, smaller newspapers in Quebec also got a list of nominations: for the Quebec Community Newspaper Association awards.

The full list is here in PDF format, but since we judge papers by the number of awards they are nominated for, let’s tally the numbers:

The clear winner in number of nominations is the paper with the best name: the LowDown to Hull and Back News. The Gatineau hills paper with the adorable publisher has 17 nominations and two honourable mentions. Surprisingly, Best Overall Newspaper isn’t one of them.

Others, in order:

It’s a bit silly to judge these papers strictly on the basis of these numbers, but the disappointing showings from some former QCNA stars is worth noting.

The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, whose claim to fame is being North America’s oldest continually-running newspaper, was one of the few English media in the Quebec City region, and a strong community paper. But problems at the ownership level led to a fear that it would stop publishing, a fear that its fans hope is no longer necessary after a new owner came in in November.

The West Island Chronicle, meanwhile, is suffering after the departure of its editor and only reporter a year ago. The paper was among the leaders last year on the strength of their work before they left, but now it has become at best average as its young staff learns the ropes and reinvents the journalistic wheel.

(If you want some advice, by the way, having reporters paraphrase celebrity gossip rumours they found online like a poor man’s Doug Camilli probably isn’t an optimal use of limited resources, even if it’s attracting a bunch of junk traffic online.)

The QCNA awards are handed out May 27 in Vaudreuil.

UPDATE (June 1): The list of winners is out. The Suburban won five awards, including best overall newspaper. The Eastern Door won two, Your Local Journal four, The Nation three, The Equity three and Pontiac Journal two.

The Gleaner Nunatsiaq News, Westmount Examiner, Bulletin d’Aylmer, Laval News, Townships Outlet, Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph and West Island Chronicle won one each.

| Media

FPJQ award winners (with links)

Last weekend, the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec held its annual meeting and journalism conference in Montreal, and part of that is handing out its annual awards for the best in Quebec journalism.

As usual, media reports about these awards are heavily based on whether those news outlets won any of those awards, as you can see from these gloating pieces:

As is usual with these kinds of awards, neither the list of Judith Jasmin prize nominees nor the list of winners included links to the articles or broadcast pieces in question. (It’s a problem I pointed out three years ago and many times since.) So I will attempt to provide them here.

Winners in each category are listed first, with their names bolded.

Prix Judith Jasmin

Prix Hommage

The Prix Judith Jasmin Hommage, honouring a career of achievement in journalism, went to Paule Beaugrand-Champagne, who has worked for various media outlets and is now retired. She was in the news recently for a piece in L’Actualité about the Journal de Montréal, written from the perspective of a former editor-in-chief who’s not pleased with the way the business is run these days. She has been previously profiled in Trente.

Grand Prix Judith Jasmin

  • Alain Gravel, Marie-Maude Denis, Emmanuel Marchand, Claudine Blais: «Collusion frontale» (Enquête/Radio-Canada).

Journalisme de service

  • Annick Poitras: «Comment vieillir riche» (L’actualité)
  • Pierre Craig, Claude Laflamme, Luc Tremblay: «Service à la clientèle» (La Facture/Radio-Canada)
  • Catherine Dubé: «Grippe A(H1N1), Tout savoir – Comment se protéger» (Québec Science)

Nouvelles / médias locaux et régionaux

Nouvelles / médias nationaux

Entrevue et Portrait

Opinion

Grand reportage

Chantal Guy happened to be in Haiti on Jan. 12, writing a story about author Dany Lafferière, when the earthquake struck. Despite being unprepared to cover a disaster zone, she turned into a news reporter and filed this story. Others followed after it over the next few days, until a team of journalists arrived from Montreal. You can read about her experience in this article, and find other stories about Haiti on La Presse’s Haiti page.

Enquête

Collusion frontale didn’t win in this category, but was given the Grand Prix.

It’s worth reading the FPJQ’s list of winners to see what stood out in the winning stories in each category.

Prix Antoine Désilets

The photography winners are always harder to track down, mostly because they’re poorly described and can’t be searched as easily as a headline on Google.

The winners are listed here, along with why they were chosen. All the finalists will be on display during expositions across Quebec, including one at the Maison de la culture Ahuntsic from Jan. 20 to Feb. 26.

Vie quotidienne

  • André Pichette, La Presse, for «Pluie désaltérante»
  • Normand Blouin, Reuters, Photo Solution
  • Marie-France Coallier, The Gazette
  • Yan Doublet, Le Soleil
  • Jacques Nadeau, Le Devoir

Nouvelles

  • Ivanoh Demers, La Presse, for a photo from Haiti
  • Normand Blouin, Reuters
  • David Boily, La Presse
  • Marco Campanozzi, The Gazette
  • Jacques Nadeau, Le Devoir
  • Philippe Renaud, Stigmat Photo

Photoreportage

Portrait

  • Sébastien St-Jean, ICI, for a photo of Denis Villeneuve.
  • Bernard Brault, La Presse
  • Alain Décarie, RueFrontenac.com
  • André Pichette, La Presse
  • Chantal Poirier, RueFrontenac.com
  • Alain Roberge, La Presse
  • François Roy, La Presse

Sports

  • Bernard Brault, La Presse
  • Judith Cailhier, Le Reflet
  • Benoît Gariépy, Journal de Québec
  • Olivier Jean, RueFrontenac.com
  • Daniel Mallard, Journal de Québec
  • André Pichette, La Presse

Multimédia

Other prizes and honours

  • The Bourse Arthur-Prévost, designed to encourage young journalists, went to Gabrielle Duchaine of Rue Frontenac, the second time in as many years that the bursary has gone to a journalist from the publication of locked-out workers of the Journal de Montréal. (Duchaine was also Rue Frontenac’s only nomination for a Judith Jasmin award, though there were two Antoine Désilets nominations for photographers. Though they didn’t win any of those awards, they can at least take comfort in the fact that the Journal de Montréal wasn’t nominated for anything.) Nancy Beaulieu, a journalist at La Voix de l’Est, got an honourable mention.
  • The Conseil supérieur de la langue française, which is independent of the FPJQ, handed out awards at the latter’s gala. Presse canadienne has a story. It gave its Prix Jules-Fournier for French language competence in print to Mélanie Saint-Hilaire, a freelance journalist who has worked for L’Actualité. L’Actualité links to some of her articles from here. The Prix Raymond-Charette, for broadcasting, went to Pierre Craig of Radio-Canada. Each prize is $5,000.
| Media, Montreal

Linda Gyulai’s big moment

“I don’t like politics.”

It’s an odd thing for The Gazette’s city hall reporter to say, but Linda Gyulai explains: her motivations are journalistic, not political. She’s not out there to sabotage the mayor (even though many on both sides of the aisle at city hall may think so). She’s not out there to stir up controversy. She’s out there to explain to people what goes on in their municipal government, both the things they want the world to know about and the things they’d rather keep secret.

If it means she ruffles a few feathers along the way, that’s part of the job. She doesn’t take it personally.

And if it wins her some awards, that’s just a bonus.

Continue reading →

| Media

Hall honours Gazette writer

Ian MacDonald

Ian MacDonald, former Expos beat writer for The Gazette (among other things) has been honoured by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame with its Jack Graney Award, given to someone in the media who has made a significant contribution to the sport in their life’s work.

MacDonald, not to be confused with conservative political columnist L. Ian MacDonald, has been retired for a decade now, but still contributes Where Are They Now columns, as well as his weekly NFL picks during the season.

If you’re like me, your reaction was a resounding: “Wait a minute, there’s a Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame?”

| Media

FPJQ award winners (with links)

Once again, journalists gathered together this weekend to pat each other on the back, handing out awards to honour the best of Quebec journalism over the past year.

And, as usual, La Presse and Radio-Canada were the big winners, and aren’t shy about showing it: La Presse, Radio-Canada. But Gesca’s Le Soleil and La Voix de l’Est also picked up awards, as did the Journal de St. François and H magazine. (Le Devoir also covered the awards even though it didn’t win any.)

The sole anglo winner is Sue Montgomery of The Gazette. And they’re very proud.

Since, like previous journalism awards announcements, nobody has thought to link news of the winners to the stories and photos they won for (Radio-Canada comes closest, linking only to its own reports), I’ve done so here for those I can find:

Prix Judith-Jasmin (writing)

See the FPJQ release for comments from the juries for each award

Prix Antoine-Désilets (photography)

See the FPJQ release for comments from the juries for each award

* Décarie’s photo was published before the lockout in January.

The 40 photos finalists will be on display at the Maison de la culture Ahuntsic – Cartierville from Jan. 14 to Feb. 20, 2010, as part of a tour of Quebec.

Other awards

| Radio, TV

CJAD, CBC Montreal win RTNDA awards

The RTNDA (which used to stand for something but now doesn’t) has announced the winners of its annual broadcasting awards.

Two of them are from Montreal:

  • Charlie Edwards Award (Spot News) – CJAD 800 for Montreal North Riots
  • Sam Ross Award (Editorial/Commentary) – CBC News: Montreal for Daycare Fees

I also note that one winner is the A-Channel station in Windsor, which CTV decided to pull the plug on until Shaw came in to rescue it.

| Media, On the Net

CAJ award winners (with links)

I don’t know why all the journalism awards are handed out about this time. They should be handed out in late December when there’s no other news.

In any case, the Canadian Association of Journalists gave out its annual awards on Saturday, a day after the National Newspaper Awards. In both cases, neither the list of nominees nor the list of winners included any links to original content, which for the most part is still online. So once again, as a public service, I bring them to you below:

  • Open newspaper/wire service (circ. >25,000): A Pig’s Tale (Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator)
  • Community newspaper: Adam’s Fall (Matthieu Aikins, The Coast)
  • Open television (>5 mins): The Taser Test (CBC News: The National)
  • Open television (<5 mins): Mulroney Mystery (Quicktime video) (Paul Hunter and Harvey Cashore, CBC News: The National)
  • Regional television: Prescription for Profit (Windows Media video) (Kathy Tomlinson et al, CBC News: Vancouver)
  • Open radio news/current affairs: Nuclear Renaissance (MP3) (CBC National Radio News)
  • Computer-assisted reporting: Impact (Melinda Dalton and Tamsin McMahon, Waterloo Region Record)
  • Photojournalism: Steve Russell, Toronto Star (you can see some of his photos on the Star’s Olympics photo blog)
  • Magazine: The Pill Pushers, (Alex Roslin, The Georgia Straight)
  • Faith and spirituality: Where is God Today? (CBC Radio)
  • Scoop: Nunavut Business Credit Corporation fiasco (Patricia Bell, CBC Nunavut)
  • Daily excellence: Murder on a Greyhound bus (Karen Pauls, CBC Radio)
  • Print feature: How safe is your food? (Michael Friscolanti, Maclean’s)
  • Student award of excellence in journalism: Motel muddle (Tamara Cunningham, Thompson Rivers University)

The big headline-making prize is the Code of Silence award, given to a government department that is an enemy of transparency (usually in a high-profile case). This year it was the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, for that whole listeriosis thing.

The national journalist association also bestowed its President’s Award to the unsung hero: media lawyers, who are working hard to make information free.

| Media

National Newspaper Award winners (with links)

Just like last year, The Globe and Mail came out with the longest penis at the National Newspaper Awards gala Friday night in Montreal. Canada’s national newspaper won six awards out of 13 nominations, followed by the Toronto Star (4) and La Presse and the Hamilton Spectator at two each. Seven other papers (including The Gazette) and Canadian Press each picked up a single award.

The Gazette won in the sports category for a column by Red Fisher on the retirement of Patrick Roy’s No. 33 jersey, specifically his unpopular opinion that it shouldn’t be retired. It was also nominated for a short feature by city hall reporter Linda Gyulai on traffic cones.

La Presse’s André Pratte won again in the editorials category, and Julien Chung and Philippe Tardif won in the presentation category, where the paper was nominated twice. La Presse had eight nominations total.

So let the bragging begin:

The Winnipeg Free Press was the only newspaper with multiple nominations (two) to be shut out of the winners category. Their story makes it clear they were hoping for something more.

And the winners are…

Since the National Newspaper Award website list of winners doesn’t include links, I’ve copied my list below from my post about the nominations. Winners are listed first and bolded.

Winners in the cartooning and photography categories are posted on the NNA website.

Multimedia feature

News feature photography

Beat reporting

  • Michelle Lang, Calgary Herald: health and medicine
  • Rob Shaw, Victoria Times-Colonist: policing issues (see “More on this story”)
  • Jane Sims, London Free Press: justice

Explanatory work

Politics

  • Steve Rennie, Canadian Press (listeriosis)
  • Linda Diebel, Toronto Star (insider stories)
  • Jeffrey Simpson & Brian Laghi, Globe and Mail (Prime Minister Stephen Harper)

Short features

Local reporting

  • Monte Sonnenberg, Simcoe Reformer: Ontario Home Owner Employee Relocation plan
  • Gordon Hoekstra, Prince George Citizen: forestry industry in B.C.
  • North Bay Nugget: E-coli outbreak

Presentation

  • Julien Chung, Philippe Tardif, La Presse
  • France Dupont, La Presse
  • Catherine Farley & Sharis Shahmiryan, Toronto Star

Special project

Sports photography

  • Derek Ruttan, London Free Press: Football fumble (second photo)
  • Tony Bock, Toronto Star
  • J. T. McVeigh, Barrie Examiner

Business

Columns

Investigations

Arts and entertainment

Sports

Feature photography

International reporting

Editorials

Editorial cartooning

Long feature

News photography

Breaking news

| Media

MédiaMatinQuébec gets photo award

Its website no longer exists, but MédiaMatinQuébec’s name came up this week as the News Photographers Association of Canada announced the winners of its annual photo awards. (As is the tradition with photographers, the list is filled with typos and formatting errors.)

Unfortunately, there’s no gallery so we have no idea what these photos look like, but I’m sure they’re lovely. The press release announcing the nominations last month has some simple, vague descriptions which might help.

MédiaMatinQuébec, the strike paper put out by locked-out workers at the Journal de Québec until a deal was reached last summer, got first place in the spot news category, for a photo of a sky diving fatality from Benoit Gariépy.

Other Quebec winners include:

| Media

Globe and Mail up for three EPpy Awards

On the same day that the Pulitzer prize winners were announced, Editor & Publisher also announced the finalists for its EPpy Awards, which up until now I had never heard of. There’s just so many journalism awards I tend to miss some of them.

Unless something escaped me, the Globe and Mail is the only Canadian finalist, and it’s in three categories. Once again I point out that the announcement fails to include any links, so I do so here:

UPDATE (May 7): Winners announced, and bolded above.

| Media

Quebec media (but not all Quebecers) shut out of CAJ award nods

The Canadian Association of Journalists announced the nominees for its annual awards, and Quebec media were nowhere to be seen.

Part of the reason behind that is that there aren’t any French-language nominees. Darn francos can get their own awards, dagnabbit.

But The Gazette, the community papers, as well as CBC, CTV, Global and CJAD news teams were also excluded from the nominations.

Still, there are some Quebecers on the list who worked for national media or media in other regions. I spotted two off the bat:

Perhaps there are others I’ve missed.

I’ll also take this opportunity to point out yet again that a list of journalism award nominees is issued and nobody thinks to link to the nominated pieces for people to read.

| Media, Opinion

Are cash journalism awards unethical?

Crazy lefties are up in arms about a $2,500 award given to Le Devoir journalist Alec Castonguay by the Conference of Defence Associations, a military lobbying group. J-Source has some more details about the controversy.

The argument is that this award, which is given to journalists who write about military issues, is essentially a bribe for providing the industry with good coverage. The association is hardly going to award journalistic work it considers biased against it, after all. Knowing this, journalists might be tempted to skew their reporting in favour of the industry to boost their chances of getting the award.

Though the motives of the lobbyist group may be honourable, strict ethical standards should force respectable journalists to reject the award and especially any cash associated with it.

But what’s not mentioned is that the CDA’s award is hardly the only cash prize given to journalists by non-journalism industry associations for a specific type of coverage. A quick Google search gives me these:

Should we look down upon journalists who receive these awards as well?

My knee-jerk answer is yes. Journalists should be honoured to be recognized for their achievements when judged by their peers. They should be thankful for recognition from industry. But they shouldn’t accept money from non-journalism groups – even non-profit ones – when they present a clear conflict of interest.

But then I’ve never received such an award, and probably won’t any time soon, so it’s easy for me to sit here and judge.