Adrienne Arsenault, Michelle Gagnon and Nazim Baksh from CBC News’ The National won the Open Broadcast News category at the CAJ (Canadian Association of Journalists) Awards, handed out Apr. 29 in Ottawa. Other winners included Abigail Bimman from CTV News Kitchener for Community Reporting, while The Canadian Press won for Daily Excellence for its Fort McMurray wildfire coverage. You can view the full list of winners here.
CBC Saskatchewan’s Geoff Leo and Paul Dornstauder together with Patrick Lagacé and his newspaper La Presse are co-winners of the 19th Press Freedom Award, handed out May 2 by the Ottawa-based Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom (CCWPF). Along with producer Dornstauder, Leo researched and wrote a series of stories on controversial land dealings in which two well-connected businessmen made millions at taxpayers’ expense, working against government opposition, lawsuits and delayed responses to access to information requests. Co-winner Patrick Lagacé was subjected to police surveillance and wrote several columns exposing and challenging the practice.
Veritas – Advancing Journalism in the Public Interest is teaming up with Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Global Reporting Centre to host a cross-border investigative conference in Vancouver, May 20-21. Designed for reporters, editors and producers from newspapers, TV, radio stations, web-only news sites and news blogs, confirmed speakers and panelists include Walt Bogdanich, New York Times; Kathryn Gretsinger, CBC; Sunny Dhillon, Globe & Mail; and Peter Klein – 60 Minutes/UBC School of Journalism.
ZoomerMedia Ltd. has lost its final appeal in a long-running breach-of-contract suit filed by the former president and CEO of its television division, Bill Roberts. Roberts headed Vision TV when Zoomer bought the channel in 2010 and filed suit after his contract wasn’t extended. Based on terms of his original contract, the court awarded Roberts severance of two years salary, $150,000 in sabbatical claims, plus additional costs putting Zoomer on the hook for $778,000, including interest. Roberts was denied $300,000 he had sought for bad-faith damages and mental distress.
ZoomerMedia Ltd. has announced its financial results for the second quarter. For the three months ended Feb. 28, the company had revenues of $11.8 million, operating expenses of $12.6 million and negative EBITDA of $0.8 million. Net loss for the period was $1.0 million.
Following the 600 MHz spectrum auction in the U.S., the federal department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development has told the Financial Post a similar auction in Canada is at least two years away. The U.S. auction of low-band spectrum, previously used to carry broadcast TV signals, brought in $19.8 billion USD, most of that from T-Mobile which acquired 45 percent of the new spectrum initially to be used to cover rural areas. The federal department says it will launch a public consultation on auction policies to determine how a bidding structure might be laid out.
The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group has announced its 2017 Prairie Equity Scholarship competition aimed at broadcasting students from the Prairie provinces who are part of underrepresented groups. The Equity Scholarship was instituted in 2009 to address the shortage of broadcasters from four groups: Aboriginal Peoples, Persons with Disabilities, Members of Visible Minorities, and Women. This year, two $2,000 awards are available to students attending or planning to attend a recognized broadcast program at a post-secondary institution in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba. Applicants can access scholarship information here. Deadline for applications is Oct. 6 with the award to be announced in November.
