Toronto Star wins second consecutive Canadian Journalism Foundation Excellence Award

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Jun 08, 2011, 01:21 ET

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TORONTO, June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Cited for its "dogged pursuit of issue-based stories," the Toronto Star tonight won the Excellence in Journalism Award (large media category) for the second year in a row at the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) 14^th Annual Awards Gala. CBC Manitoba won the Excellence in Journalism Award in the small/local media category,

"We received a record number of entries," said Excellence Jury Chair Michael Benedict. "And we received a record number of high quality entries. It speaks to the positive state of Canadian journalism despite tough economic times in the industry."

A sellout crowd of media and business luminaries from across the country gathered at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel to celebrate overall excellence in journalism, with the ceremony hosted by Global National executive editor and anchor Dawna Friesen. Other honourees included Lifetime Achievement Award winner Patrick Brown and Honorary Tribute recipient Robert MacNeil.

"Good journalism starts with good reporters," said Michael Cooke, editor of the Toronto Star, who accepted the Excellence Award from Rudyard Griffiths, co-anchor of the daily BNN current affairs show Squeeze Play. "The truth is there's not a lot in between. Good reporters are everything. The bloggers come out there to pick the pockets of the dead, but it's the reporters that do the real journalism."

For CBC Manitoba, it was the second time managing editor Cecil Rosner accepted the Excellence Award on behalf of his organization - the CBC Television program Canada Now in Winnipeg won in 1991. Bob Lewis, incoming chair of the CJF, presented the award and congratulated the broadcaster for consistently delivering "very useful, very practical information that was of obvious value to its audience."

"It's really humbling to be in this room," said Rosner, noting that making a living as a journalist is rewarding in itself. "I count myself lucky to be able to come to work every day."

The Winnipeg Free Press and The Tyee received honourable mentions in the large/national and small/local media categories respectively.

Among the evenings other awards:

The Greg Clark Award, sponsored by CTV and the Toronto Star, went to Marion Warnica, a reporter with the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group in Lethbridge, Alta. Committed to serving her listeners in the southern Alberta area, Warnica proposed that she spend a week with experts at the Canadian Avalanche Centre in Revelstoke, B.C. to gain insight into a phenomenon that continues to mystify and terrify her community.
The Canadian Journalism Fellowships for a year of post-secondary study at the University of Toronto are awarded annually by Massey College. This year's six winners are:
- Robert Cribb, an investigative journalist with the Toronto Star, who received the Kierans-Janigan Fellowship, funded through the generosity of former CJF chair Tom Kierans and his wife Mary Janigan in honour of one of Canada's greatest arts journalists, the late Val Ross of the Globe and Mail;
- Elizabeth Bowie, senior producer of CBC Radio's Spark, who received the CBC/Radio-Canada Fellowship;
- Lee Pitts, an award-winning journalist with CBC Television & Radio news in St. John's, N.L., who received the St. Clair Balfour Fellowship;
- Ato Dadzie, one of Ghana's best-known journalists and currently news editor at Joy FM in that country, who is the recipient of the Gordon N. Fisher/jhr Fellowship, awarded in partnership with Journalists for Human Rights and named after the late Gordon N. Fisher who, along with the late St. Clair Balfour of Southam Newspapers, created the fellowships in 1962;
- Luis Horacio Nájera, an investigative reporter who fled to Canada from his native Mexico after receiving death threats and a 2010 recipient of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression International Press Freedom Award, who received the Scotiabank/CJFE Fellowship;
- Shawn Micallef, a senior editor and co-owner of Spacing magazine, who received the Webster/McConnell Fellowship, named after two Montreal-based foundations.
The Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, worth up to $100,000, is sponsored by the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, the Toronto Star and the Honderich family. The grant provides for a Canadian journalist to undertake a year-long research project on a topical public policy issue. This year's recipient is Neil Sandell, a senior producer at CBC Radio WHERE. For his fellowship, he will explore the struggles of young adults in the workforce through a series of articles in the Toronto Star.

The 21st Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship goes to David Skok, managing editor at Globalnews.ca. This fellowship is funded by a publicly subscribed permanent endowment in memory of Martin Wise Goodman, late president of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. The fellowship carries a stipend for living expenses and payment of fees to Harvard University. While at Harvard, Skok will be studying how to sustain the distinct Canadian journalistic presence in a world of stateless news organizations.

The previously announced Lifetime Achievement Award to Patrick Brown was presented by Peter Mansbridge, CBC senior news correspondent and anchor of The National. Reporting for CBC and its French-language network SRC from 1974 to 2008, Brown covered major events in dozens of countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He is the recipient of three Gemini awards and the author of the autobiographical Butterfly Mind. Brown is now an independent documentary producer based in Beijing.

In accepting his award, Brown recognized the hard work by the unsung heroes who've helped him and other foreign correspondents, often putting their own lives at risk for the sake of a story. "TV is a team sport ... if there is an achievement there, it is not a one person game," he says. "Management and editors back here in Toronto are very concerned to look after us, as employees and known faces, but these people are important too and we need to remember when things happen not to forget them."

Robert MacNeil, award-winning television news anchor, author and journalist and co-creator of the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, was acknowledged during a special CJF tribute for a journalism career that has spanned nearly a half century. Now living in New York City, MacNeil was born in Montreal and raised in Halifax but began his journalism career with Reuters in London.

MacNeil says his Canadian-ness has kept him "something of an outsider" when it comes to issues like the justification of the Iraq war, and also the belief in the value of public broadcasting. "I thank the Canadian spirit that shaped me when I was young," says MacNeil. "Today, when looking for my country, I find it in myself."

About the Canadian Journalism Foundation
The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) is a not-for-profit organization that promotes excellence in journalism by celebrating outstanding journalistic achievement through an annual awards program; by operating journalism websites, J-Source.ca (English) and ProjetJ.ca (French), in cooperation with the country's leading journalism schools; and by organizing events that facilitate dialogue among journalists, business people, politicians, government officials and academics about the role of the media in Canadian society.

/NOTE TO EDITORS: Media Assets accompanying this story are available as follows:

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http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/mmnr/smr/Small Excellence Winner.flv

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/mmnr/smr/Large Excellence Winner.flv

SOURCE Canadian Journalism Foundation