Canadian Press Freedom Award nominees announced

The Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom (CCWPF) has announced the nominees for the 11th annual Press Freedom Award.

The nominees are:

• Reporter Daniel Leblanc – “nominated by The Globe and Mail for his willingness to risk judicial censure for protecting a confidential source in the sponsorship scandal”
• Reporter William Marsden — “nominated by The Gazette for his reporting of a land deal involving the husband of Parti Québecois leader Pauline Marois. A resulting lawsuit against the newspaper threatens to stifle legitimate investigation into an issue of public interest”
• Brian Macleod Rogers and Paul Schabas — “lawyers nominated by the Canadian Newspaper Association for their outstanding work, often without monetary reward, fighting for important principles that help keep the press free and our democratic system healthy”
• Graeme Smith of The Globe and Mail — “nominated by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) for his reporting on Afghanistan. Smith is credited with sparking an important debate inside Canada about the moral and legal parameters of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan”

The award will be given out at a luncheon at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on May 5. CBC’s Don Newman will host the event and the Globe’s Smith will give a speech on “The dangerous and confusing search for truth in Afghanistan.”

Also at the luncheon, three prizes will be awarded for the 9th annual international editorial cartoon competition.

The Press Freedom Award includes a cash prize of $2000 and the editorial cartoon prizes are $1500, $750 and $500. This year’s theme for the cartoon competition was “protecting privacy.”