Career highlight for reporter
Although he didn’t return home with a trophy, Penticton Herald reporter Joe Fries considers his Canadian Newspaper Association Award nomination to be a career highlight.
Fries attended the black-tie gala in Toronto on Friday, accompanied by his wife. The couple’s one-year-old son also made the trip.
Fries was nominated in the category of best local reporting for his four-part “Casinogate” series, which ran June 28 through July 1, 2016. The story uncovered, through Freedom of Information and Privacy, a threatened lawsuit by the Penticton Indian Band over the proposed casino location which was never disclosed to the public by the City of Penticton.
The winner was Paul Schliesmann from the Kingston Whig Standard, reporting on the plight of marginalized people and their shocking living standards.
“I didn’t win, nor did Justine Mercier from Ottawa, who I thought would win. Still, it was an honour to be a finalist in a room with the very best of Canadian journalism,” Fries wrote in a post to social media.
Fries worked for The Herald in 20072008 and returned to the daily newspaper in 2015. In between, he worked at several other publications, including a one-year job maternity relief in Calgary.
“Everywhere I went on the weekend, people were asking if Joe won,” Herald managing editor James Miller said.
“It was his first trip to the CNAs and it certainly won’t be his last. The entire Herald staff is extremely proud of Joe. He is the heart of our newsroom. The people in Penticton know how good he is, now the rest of the country does.”
Of the 70 nominees in 21 categories, The Penticton Herald was the smallest newspaper to receive a nomination this year.
The Globe and Mail was the big winner of the night winning in 11 of the 21 categories. The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon was named 2016 Journalist of the Year. MacKinnon was chosen for his report on the Syrian teenagers who sparked the Syrian war, Britain’s referendum on the European Union, the attempted coup in Turkey, and the period of instability that is gripping the world.