Amnesty International Canada is pleased to announce the 2016 Youth Media Award winner is: “Untitled: The Legacy of Land in North Preston”, http://northprestonland.ca/ produced by Radio-Television-Journalism students* at Nova Scotia Community College. They are the second winners of the Youth Media Award for human rights journalism from a Canadian post-secondary institution.
Amnesty International judge, Rick MacInnes-Rae, describes “Untitled as a digital documentary that explores the denial of land ownership to blacks in Nova Scotia. It is framed as a 200 year-old injustice in which a group of Canadians are still being refused title to their own property because of the colour of their skin.”
The award will be presented at the annual Amnesty International Media Awards gala event on Wednesday April 5 at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. The Awards honour excellence in human rights coverage in Canadian media.
“The NS Community College Radio-Television-Journalism students showed initiative and enterprise by securing a variety of interviews and the confidence of frustrated families who were persuaded to trust students to tell their story. The producers recognized that telling the story of the past was key to understanding the future, and found the video and archival pictures that let them do it with flair and fairness. As one lawyer points out, part of the problem is that the Nova Scotia government views this as a land issue and not a human rights issue, which takes in a racial bias,” commented MacInnes-Rae. “As a consequence of the NSCC documentaries, the provincial government was moved to take the first of what may lead to other steps to resolve this historic indignity.”
“Even-handed, journalistically-sound and hard-headed, “Untitled” demonstrates human rights issues violations are not just the stuff of distant places. They can be in our own back yard, and need to be brought into the light.”
The Amnesty International Youth Media Awards were judged by Rick MacInnes-Rae and John Tackaberry. Rick MacInnes-Rae spent 38 years with CBC as an award-winning war correspondent, host and producer. His recent journalism examined international affairs and conflict studies and was the focus of his program Dispatches. He is presently Associate Professor of Journalism at Humber College. John Tackaberry was Media Relations Officer at Amnesty International Canada 1991-2016 and is a former reporter for Inter Press Service and Pacifica Radio News.
The Amnesty International Canada Youth Media Awards are given to student journalists, to encourage them to use their creativity to produce journalism that increases awareness and understanding of human rights issues.
For further information please contact: Elizabeth Berton-Hunter, Media Relations, (416)363-9933 #332
Radio-Television-Journalism Students* at Nova Scotia Community College
Class of 2016
Kristen Brown
Ellen Coles
Ed Halverson
Scott Hastings
Nicole Martelle
Jane Nicholson
Andres Porras
Christian Roach
Marilyn Sexton
Olesya Shyvikova
John Wimberly
Morgan Jessome
CJ Killam
Nick Madore
Jake Nissen
Romney Tarasco
Jason Cohanim
Michael Decoste
Wyatt Estabrooks
Richard Harris
Caitlin Hartlen
Alyssa Lewis Graham
Class of 2017
Allister Aalders
Skye Bryden-Blom
Benoit Crawford-Leblanc
Jennie Cyril
Jenn Edwards
Kadence
Joel LeBlanc
Chris Lee
Nicole Ly
Dan Macissac
Dan Mackenzie
Nic Meloney
Whitney Middleton
Matthew Moore
Brandon Munroe
Hilary Pettigrew
Jean-Marc Samson
Ethan Saulnier
Blake Seymour
Callum Smith
