Reports about the “harsh homecoming” of child soldiers in Uganda and the homeless living like “abandoned animals on the street” in Los Angeles win Amnesty International Canada 2006 Media Awards
AI Index: AMR 20/C12/200619 December 2006
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The tough transition from being an abducted child forced to be a soldier, escaping and then trying to return to a lost past, was vividly described in one article. The raw reality of the homeless in Los Angeles was presented in an audio documentary. Both were recognized today as winners of Amnesty International Canada’s twelfth annual Media Awards. These awards are for outstanding reporting about human rights issues in the Canadian media in English.*
For national print the winner is Stephanie Nolen for “From the bush, a harsh homecoming” about the children’s war in northern Uganda, a feature article in The Globe and Mail, 8 July 2006. The article describes children abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army, used as sex slaves, forced to fight, and who even after escaping are seen to be infected by a sort of demon spirit called chen. The complexity of the larger struggle is clearly described, woven together with the personal stories of those who must shake off the stigma and find ways to forgive.
“The legacy of human rights violations is not just physical wounds but broken spirits that are very hard to mend”, says Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. “Stephanie Nolen’s article shows that despite the difficult struggle, the bitter past can be overcome and by working together there is hope that lost relationships can be restored.”
In the video/audio category the winner is Jennifer Westaway and senior producer Thomas Rose for “Skid Row”, an audio documentary broadcast on CBC Radio - Dispatches 16 February 2006. The piece peels away the myths and exposes the reality of the homeless capital of the United States - Los Angeles. It highlights the numbers of this disproportionately African American group that is ignored by others speeding by in “steel on wheels”. And the documentary reveals the failure of the community to address the real costs of treating human beings, as one observer said, “like abandoned animals on the street”.
“Skid Row vividly exposes the real social costs of being blind to the human rights of others,” says Neve. “In many instances, meeting their immediate needs would even have been less costly than forcing the community to deal with emergency care later.”
There was no winner this year in the local/alternative print category.
The annual Media Awards from Amnesty International Canada are made in memory of John Humphrey, a law professor, principal author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and founder of the Canadian section of Amnesty International. He died in March 1995.
The judges for the Amnesty International Canada Media Awards in English this year were: Dave Todd, chief correspondent and Ottawa editor of one of North America’s largest energy news agencies, formerly editor in New York of Choices, the UN Development Programme’s global news magazine on human rights and sustainable development; Madelaine Drohan, an author and Ottawa correspondent for The Economist; and John Tackaberry, Media Relations for the AI Canadian branch, a former Canadian reporter for Inter Press Service and Pacifica Radio News.
The awards are for national print, local /alternative print coverage and video and audio pieces printed or broadcast in the period from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006.
“The winners this year have produced excellent reports that highlight the critical social impact of human rights violations”, says Neve. “They provide a powerful impetus for us all to address the consequences for everyone of these violations without exceptions.”
* The Amnesty International Canada Media Awards for excellence in coverage of human rights in French will be announced in a separate news release in January.
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