CBC’s the fifth estate wins 2012 Canadian Hillman Prize
CBC's the fifth estate has won the 2012 Canadian Hillman Prize in Journalism.
Diana Swain begins a documentary aired Oct. 21, 2011 on CBC’s the fifth estate with the following:
For a century it’s been seen as the perfect marriage between childhood and the outdoors: Boy Scouts. But for years, scouting executives have struggled with a sickening problem in their ranks. A problem documented in confidential files.
Tonight, in this co-production with The Los Angeles Times, we’ll show you how a well-intentioned idea to protect young boys sometimes succeeded only in keeping what had happened to them under wraps. A secret list that became a list of secrets.
This secret list Swain speaks of is one that records the names of pedophiles who have been involved with Scouts and been removed from the organization.
The 'Scout's Honour' investigation looked into incidences of sexual abuse, tracked down victims and perpetrators, and wrangled an apology from Scout’s Canada.
[node:ad]Now it has earned the team of reporters, producers and researchers who worked on it the 2012 Canadian Hillman Prize.
The Hillman Prize, given out by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, honours excellence in journalism in service of the common good. This is the second year that the Canadian Hillman Prize has been awarded. The inaugral winner was Steve Buist of The Hamilton Spectator.
"the fifth estate's 'Scout's Honour' is a triumph of investigative journalism," said Jim Stanford, economist with the Canadian Auto Workers, columnist for The Globe and Mail and a judge of this year’s award, in a statement. "The reporters undertook an investigation that was complex, detailed, international, and expensive – far superior, in fact, to most police criminal investigations of the same sort of crimes.
The CBC team was chosen as the winner out of 25 entries from both large and small media organizations from across Canada. An awards ceremony to honour the team will be held in Toronto on March 20. They will receive $5,000 to share and will travel to New York City for the U.S. Hillman Prizes ceremony on May 1.
