Accepting nominations for the 2023 Amnesty International Canada Media Awards
The Amnesty International Canada Media Awards — which will be handed out in person for the first time since 2019 — celebrate excellence in human-rights storytelling by Canada-based journalists and Canadian journalists reporting abroad.
We invite reporters, editors, student journalists and media outlets across Canada to send their best human-rights-focused work. Please review the categories below as you prepare your submission.
Submissions will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 16, 2023. To be eligible for consideration, entries must have been published or broadcast in between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022.
Contributors may nominate more than one work or submit for more than one category. One may submit their own work or nominate a piece on the creator’s behalf. (Please get the other person’s or group’s express and written permission before nominating them for an Amnesty International Canada Media Award.)
A distinguished panel of judges will evaluate the submissions. Entries will be assessed on the quality and depth of the reporting and storytelling, how they centre the voices and agency of the people and communities at the heart of the issue, and how they present possible solutions.
Amnesty International Canada will announce the winners in September. We will present the honours at our first in-person Media Awards ceremony in four years, to be held in Toronto in October. More details will be announced soon.
2022-2023 Amnesty Media Award Categories
Entries must be submitted using the electronic form, ensuring all the required fields are filled out. Please ensure you have URLs for your work. By submitting your work to the Amnesty Media Awards, you permit it to be reviewed by the judges and highlighted in Amnesty’s communications.
*Alternative publications often have mandates to highlight stories and perspectives that are overlooked or underrepresented in the mainstream press.
2021-2022 Amnesty Award Winners
- Local/Alternative Media: “Indigenous women still live in fear 50 years after murder of Helen Betty Osborne,” Shari Narine, Windspeaker.com
- Long-Form Podcast: Season Two of CBC Podcasts’s The Village, Justin Ling, Jennifer Fowler, Julia Wittmann, Eunice Kim, Arif Noorani, Chris Oke, Cesil Fernandes, Fabiola Melendez Carletti, Alex V Green, and Faith Fundal
- Long–Form Radio: “Reconciliation reality check with Murray Sinclair,” Rosanna Deerchild, Kim Kaschor, and Erin Noel, CBC Radio’s Unreserved with Rosanna Deerchild
- Long-Form Video: “Food Shock: Undercover inside the global tomato trade,” Eric Szeto, Caitlin Taylor, Asha Tomlinson, Matteo Civillini, Zorayda Gallegos Valle, and Winston Szeto, CBC TV’s Marketplace
- Mixed Media: “Toxic legacy: The fight to end environmental racism in Canada,” Megan O’Toole and Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, Al Jazeera
- National Written News: “Houses of Hate: How Canada’s prison system is broken,” Justin Ling, Maclean’s
- Short-Form Video: “Trudeau government backpedals on investigating human rights complaints against mining companies,” Jasmine Pazzano, Global News
- Post-Secondary Youth: “UBC says it’s divesting its endowment from fossil fuels by 2030. Will it be enough?” Matthew Asuncion, The Ubyssey
For more information about the Amnesty Media Awards, please contact Cory Ruf, Media Officer, Amnesty International Canadian Section (English-Speaking), 416-363-9933 x 344, mediaawards@amnesty.ca.