Wednesday July 18, 2012

Award winners

Here's a chance for you to listen to some of Dispatches' prized pieces, stories that have won us awards over the years:

The Eyes of Rosa and Antonio
Shovelling the Rain Away
Israel's Shministim
Nuclear Renaissance
Afghanistan's Left Behinds
The Garbage People of Cairo

Scrapping Over Scraps
The Headchoppers
Gees Bend: The Crossing
Too Many Ways to Die
The Democracy Project
Jody's War
Impeach, Inform And Unite
Water Wars
Muna's Story
Who Killed Father One-Speed

To listen to any of these pieces, click below

The Eyes of Rosa and Antonio

The Canadian Association of Journalists awarded the CBC's Alison Crawford its 2011 award for Human Rights Reporting, for her Dispatch which aired in October 2011.

Rosa Gomez and Antonio Savone suffered at the hands of the same torturers. They reunited to try to jail their tormentors. Photo/Alison Crawford

The story itself began many years ago in a very dark place in 1970s Argentina.

They called it "the Singing Room." And sometimes, "the Barbeque," which is closer to what it really was:a torture chamber in the basement of a Mendoza police station.

And it was bad, what they did to Antonio Savone. Much worse for Rosa Gomez, the woman whose eyes he could see -- and whose cries he could hear -- coming from the cell facing his.

Argentina was in the grip of a murderous dictatorship, and last March, Antonio headed back to meet Rosa face-to-face, and confront their captors.

The CBC's Alison Crawford begans our story in Antonio's Toronto home, as he packed to testify in Mendoza.

Listen to Alison's dispatch

In October October 2011), five of the six defendants in the D-2 case were convicted of crimes ranging from kidnap to torture and murder. The judge called them all "crimes against humanity." Report in El Sol (the Mendoza Sun)

And Antonio was in court to hear the verdict. He'll return in 2012 to testify against those accused of sexually assaulting Rosa Gomez.

Antonio has also been contacted by a novelist and a filmmaker interested in documenting his story. And an artist who wants to draw his eyes.

Finally, he tells us by email that he speaks with Rosa all the time. "I feel very close to (her)" he writes. She is now, "a part of my life."

Dispatches thanks CBC producer Mariel Borelli for performing the voice over translation for Rosa Gomez.

Shovelling the Rain Away

A report from Afghanistan that Naheed Mustafa made for Dispatches won a Gold Medal at the New York Radio Awards on September 24, 2010.

Shovelling The Rain Away measures progress in Afghanistan toward the political, human rights and humanitarian goals of the allied mission there, leading up to the 2009 elections. Naheed found a glaring dilemma that remains today.

Here's how we introduced Shovelling The Rain Away on June 1, 2009:

When we first started reporting from Afghanistan on this program seven years ago, there was a heady sense of optimism among civilians and soldiers. The Americans had just declared that "the Taliban controls no territory within Afghanistan."

There was a sense that good things were possible in a country that had endured years of bad ones. We know now it hasn't worked out that way. Even with a second democratic election approaching in August, the Taliban insurgency is alive and well, and the country is still a military campaign-in-progress.

By most barometers, Afghanistan is a country under great pressure, as Dispatches contributor Naheed Mustafa witnessed after a Kabul rainstorm.

Listen to Shovelling The Rain Away

Israel's Shministim

A small but determined group of high-school students would rather do time than do military service, in a country that doesn't recognize conscientious objectors.

Canadian journalist Jennifer Hollett's Dispatches documentary on the Shministim was selected the top broadcast for 2009 by Amnesty International Canada.

Jennifer's report begins near a section of the fence separating Israelis from the Palestinians.

Jennifer's documentary

Dispatches Democracy Project

In December 2007 Amnesty International Canada awarded the Dispatches Democracy Project -- an hour-long special -- the broadcast media program for the year. It orignially ran December 21, 2006

The Paradox of Democracy

Nuclear Renaissance

The drive for green energy has quietly put nuclear energy on the front burner in many countries. China is building dozens more reactors; the U.S. is approving its first new reactors since Three-Mile Island -- and countries like Canada and France are in high-pitched sales mode around the world.

This Distpatches special won a medal at the New York Radio Awards, The Peter Gzowski Program Of The Year at the Canadian Radio And Television News Directors Association annual awards, and top radio feature at the Canadian Association Of Journalists awards -- all in the spring of 2009.

Nuclear Renaissance Part One

Nuclear Renaissance Part Two

Afghanistan's Left-Behinds

Naheed Mustafa's documentary from September 2008 was one of three finalists for best radio feature in the Canadian Association Of Journalists annual awards in the spring of 2009.

Naheed's documentary

Jody's War

February 8, 2007

Four Canadian soldiers went through a doorway in Afghanistan last month. Only three walked away from it. Master Corporal Jody Mitic is one of 192 Canadians wounded in that conflict; he and three others are amputees.

Operation Falcon Summit was a big push against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But to four guys in first Battalion with The Royal Canadian Regiment, it meant another dawn patrol. The job is keeping tabs on who comes and goes in the notorious Panjwaii region.

"Nothing we hadn't done before," Jody told Rick, from his bed in Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital.

Jody's War

Rick spoke again with Jody, in the June 14, 2012 episode of Dispatches

Scrapping Over Scraps

CBC's Jennifer Westaway's piece on homelessness in Los Angeles won Amnesty International Canada's audio/video media award for 2006. She looked at how the second-largest U.S. city is, in the words of the its own mayor, the capital of homelessness in America, and why it includes so many African-Americans

Jennifer's award winner

Impeach, Inform And Unite

Dispatches was one of the CBC programs honoured at the 2006 New York Radio awards. Our program of June 15, about the hardening of politics in The United States, received a silver medal.

The program features documentaries by the CBC's Michael Colton and Rick MacInnes-Rae.

Listen to the program

The Garbage People Of Cairo

The Zabbeleen, Egyptian Coptic Christians, have built a social revolution from things most people throw out. Rhoda Metcalfe's documentary on how modernisation now threatens to force them back down the food chain won both a 2003 Canadian Association Of Journalists award and a Gabriel Award for 2003.

Rhoda's documentary

Too Many Reasons To Die

June 4, 2003

The culture of death in rural Turkey. How ritual, honor and tradition conspire to kill women. Declan Hill's story of murder, suicide, Mustafa Seven, and the stoning of Shamsiye Allack won Amnesty Canada's Broadcast Media Award for 2003.

Declan's documentary

Water Wars

The Middle East is staring at a water shortage. And with water, as with oil, the emergence of haves and have-nots is loading tensions on a troubled region. Margaret Evans' feature of January 29, 2003 was a Canadian Association of Journalists finalist.

Part One of Water Wars

Part Two of Water Wars

Jordan's late King Hussein used to say he couldn't imagine that his country would ever again go to war with Israel,"except over water." It's a commodity with a great peacetime potential. But in Israel's complicated hydro-politics, it can also be a provocation.

Part Three of Water Wars

Muna's Story

January 17, 2001

Honorable Mention 2001 Amnesty International Canada Award is Vera Frankel's report on how music helped rehabilitate a child victim of torture.

Vera's Dispatch

Gee's Bend: The Crossing

February 14, 2001

The winner of the 2001 Amnesty International Canada's Broadcast Media Award is Bruce Edwards's story of a mostly-black and a mostly-white town on opposite sides of the Alabama River - and plans to restore a ferry that was shut down during civil-rights protests in the '60s.

Bruce's documentary

Who Killed Father One Speed?

September 5, 2001

Finalist for best radio documentary Canadian Association of Journalists 2002. Rick MacInnes-Rae's account of an eccentric Canadian priest, murdered in Jamaica in the spring of 2001.

Listen to Father One Speed

The Headchoppers

May 16, 2001

Gold Medal, New York Radio Awards 2002 and finalist, CAJ 2002. Rhoda Metcalfe's documentary on how right-wing paramilitaries take over a city in Colombia.

Listen to Rhoda's documentary