Reports on the plight of prisoners transferred by Canada in Afghanistan and “the paradox of democracy” around the world win Amnesty International Canada 2007 Media Awards
AI Index: AMR 20/C37/200717 December 2007
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The fate of Afghans transferred “from Canadian custody into cruel hands” to suffer
beatings and ill-treatment was exposed in one article. The complexities and contradictions as
countries from Liberia to Georgia grapple with the “paradox of democracy” were dissected in an audio documentary. Both were recognized today as winners of Amnesty International Canada’s thirteenth annual Media Awards. These awards are for outstanding reporting about human rights issues in the Canadian media.
The treatment of detainees in Afghanistan is an issue that has long been a concern of human rights activists. Graeme Smith, the winner of the award this year in national print, brought the issue home in his 23 April 2007 feature in The Globe and Mail - “Prisoners in Afghanistan: From Canadian custody into cruel hands”. Canadian complicity in a prison system based on the premise that “these people need some torture, because without torture they will never say anything” was brilliantly exposed by the evidence of the prisoners and interviews with the prison officials.
“The face to face interviews and comments from prison officials ripped away the remaining defence that detainees transferred by Canada were not being ill-treated,” says Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. “Graeme Smith’s tenacious effort to get the facts reveals the power of information to transform readers’ understanding of an issue and change government policy.”
In the video/audio category the winner is “The Paradox of Democracy”, an ambitious multi-country report aired on CBC Radio’s “Dispatches” on 14 December 2006. Producers Alan Guettel, Rick MacInnes-Rae and Alison Masemann with reports from Margaret Evans, David Common, Prue Clarke, Laura Lynch, Bill Gillespie and Connie Watson dissect the problems for democracies around the world. The efforts to tackle corruption in Liberia, the weakness of democracy in the Middle East, and the vulnerability of Georgia to pressure from Russia are just a few examples of the issues examined to show the imperfections of democracies in times of crisis.
“In order to build a better world where human rights are respected everywhere we need to understand and help resolve the flaws in democracies that impede the protection of these rights”, says Neve. “‘The Paradox of Democracy’ provides global insight into why an imperfect democracy is sometimes the best you can get.”
There was no winner this year in the local alternative print category.
The annual Media Awards from Amnesty International Canada are made in honour 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: Jeff Sallot, an instructor in journalism at Carleton University and former Parliamentary reporter for The Globe and Mail, Dave Todd, formerly editor in New York of Choices, the UN Development Programme’s global news magazine on human rights and sustainable development; and John Tackaberry, Media Relations for the AI Canadian branch, a former reporter for Inter Press Service and Pacifica Radio News.
The awards are for national print, local/alternative print and video and audio pieces printed or broadcast in the period from 1 October, 2006 to 30 September 2007.
“The winners this year have exposed the reality behind the facade, the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan and the flaws in democracies,” notes Neve. “Human rights violations can only be prevented once the layers that hide them have been peeled away.”
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