The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) has nominated a report full of misleading claims about a pipeline protest for a journalism “excellence award.”
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the CJF would not answer questions about misinformation in Narwhal journalist Amber Bracken’s report.
In November, Bracken and others documented an RCMP raid in northern British Columbia while holed up in a cabin with anti-pipeline protesters. Bracken was detained by police, and her ensuing report – which a federal memo found had one-sided and omitted key information – led to the arrest being labeled as unlawful by journalists including the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ).
“Police put me in handcuffs when I should have been doing my job,” wrote Bracken. “I felt kidnapped. Having never been arrested before, it is the best word I can think of to describe being taken so abruptly out of my life and work in violation of Canadian Charter rights protecting freedom of the press.”
“No one in Canada should tolerate police efforts to intimidate journalists or limit news coverage. My arrest actually makes me a big part of a national reckoning with press freedoms,” she added.
If one were to believe Bracken’s account, the RCMP forcefully moved in to arrest protestors and journalists inappropriately. However, according to the national police force and the Department of Public Safety, the RCMP were legally enforcing a court order, and journalists present did not identify themselves until police had already forced their way into the building.
“On November 25 a journalist released a video showing the arrests. However the video does not show what occurred preceding RCMP members’ breach of the structures,” the department stated in a memo.
“RCMP officers read the injunction at each structure and made several calls over the course of more than an hour for occupants to exit the structure. The only response from inside the structures were derogatory in nature and refusals. It was not until RCMP officers entered the structures and arrested the individuals that they identified themselves as journalists.”
The official account is contrary to Bracken’s claim that the RCMP “cut all communications” and arrived “all at once.”
When confronted with the opposing account, the CJF stated that it stood by its decision.
“Bracken has considerable experience covering protests and demonstrations at natural resources project sites,” said CJF president Natalie Turvey. “The awards committee has confidence in the quality of her journalism.”
The excellence award is meant to recognize news outlets that embrace “accuracy” and “accountability” among other things.
Similarly the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has refused to retract a statement that called the arrests “illegal,” “an absolute disgrace” and an “audacious subversion of Canadian law” that was “outside the norms of a democracy.”
