Postmedia newspaper wins Michener Award
The Michener Award is Canada’s highest honour for meritorious public service journalism, awarded for the kind of work that asks uncomfortable questions, makes decision-makers squirm and, sometimes, even changes laws.
On Wednesday night at Rideau Hall, Gov. Gen. David Johnston awarded the Michener to Postmedia’s London Free Press for an acclaimed series, Indiscernible, that chronicled the jailhouse death of a man with mental illness who fell between the cracks of Ontario’s correctional and justice systems, taking his own life in a segregation cell.
Ottawa Citizen reporter Matthew Pearson was also honoured as the recipient of this year’s Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Journalism Education.
Pearson, who covers city hall, plans to develop a teaching module for journalism instructors and an online portal for newsrooms across Canada to help students and working journalists better understand trauma and its impact. He will also organize a multi-disciplinary symposium at the university for journalism students to hear from experts on trauma and to speak with journalists who have covered traumatic events, both domestically and internationally.
Anchored by reporter Randy Richmond, the eight-part London series represented a newsroomwide commitment to a strong local news story with major provincial implications — no small challenge in an era when traditional journalism is under siege.
Reporters, editors, visual and digital specialists in the London newsroom worked together to dissect the story of St. Thomas, Ont. realtor Jamie High and, ultimately, to expose the gaps in public services that failed him in the end.
Johnston presented the award to Free Press editor-in-chief Joe Ruscitti at Wednesday’s ceremony.
“It takes a special reporter to be stubborn enough to pursue such a tangled story, and that’s what Randy Richmond is. But it also takes a whole newsroom when it’s as small as the one at the Free Press,” said Ruscitti.
“Everyone in the room gave more so the work on the series could carry on over many months.
“So say what you want about the state of journalism in Canada and maybe especially local journalism; Indiscernible and all the Michener work from across the country say different,” he said.
In its nomination, The Free Press was praised by the award jury for going to the lengths it did over two years to both investigate and tell High’s story.
“The eloquent, gripping and tragic series exposed serious shortfalls and produced changes in policing, bail, community and hospital mental health care, the relationships between hospitals and police, the role of courts, and the treatment of inmates,” the jury wrote.
“The London Free Press’s work exemplifies the critical value of local media relentlessly pursuing stories and seeking accountability to counter what too many others are willing to overlook and let slide as simply ‘indiscernible.’ ”
Also named as finalists for the Michener were the Globe and Mail, La Presse, the Toronto Star, the National Observer, and a team from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star.