Globe reporter Mark MacKinnon, left, longtime Globe fixer Mohammed Sharif Sharaf, centre, and former Canadian military translator Jawed Haqmal on Aug. 29, 2021 in Kyiv, Ukraine after being evacuated by Ukrainian military in Afghanistan.Evgeny Maloletka/Evgeny Maloletka
The Globe and Mail has won two awards from the Canadian Journalism Foundation, including the prize for excellence in journalism, which was awarded for a story documenting the chaotic rush to evacuate Afghan nationals during the Taliban takeover of the country.
The story, titled Escape from Afghanistan and written by senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon, shone a light on his work alongside other journalists to help Afghan translators and other locals working for The Globe to escape the country, as they feared retaliation from the Taliban for working with foreigners.
Jurors called the story a “gripping tale” that helped the audience understand the desperation experienced by those trying to escape.
”The Globe and Mail’s coverage of the collapse of the Afghan government, attempts to help those flee the country who worked for Canada and Canadian journalists during the war and then the return of Afghanistan’s people to living under the Taliban are what journalism does best – telling compelling human stories,” one juror said.
At the awards ceremony on Tuesday evening, Mr. MacKinnon handed the trophy to Mohammad Sharif Sharaf, a former employee of The Globe’s bureau in Afghanistan, who made it out of the country shortly after it fell to the Taliban.
“For 10 years, reporters like me won trophies for work while Sharif was in the background,” Mr. MacKinnon said as he accepted the award. “Sharif now lives in Toronto and I hope he can find a place for this [trophy].”
The Globe and Mail receives 21 National Newspaper Award nominations
It is the second year in a row that The Globe and Mail has won the CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism, which the newspaper won last year for its work investigating how Ottawa and the Public Health Agency of Canada were caught off-guard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Escape from Afghanistan also won a National Newspaper Award for international reporting earlier this year.
The Globe and Mail also won the CJF award for climate solutions reporting, which celebrated the team of climate journalists for their series of stories on how Canada’s economy can be re-engineered to adapt and capitalize on climate change.
The awarded team is comprised of Globe journalists Ryan MacDonald, Kathryn Blaze Baum, Jeffrey Jones and Adam Radwanski.
Other winners of CJF awards included Indiginews, which won the award for excellence in the small-media category. The Indigenous-led online news platform was honoured for its reporting on the B.C. government’s controversial practice of “birth alerts,” which was declared illegal and unconstitutional by lawyers before the government dropped the program.
Former La Presse journalist Michèle Ouimet was given a lifetime achievement award for a career-long effort in telling impactful stories both in Canada and abroad. Multiple journalists were also recognized for receiving fellowships at the event. Winners included Wendy-Ann Clark, the inaugural winner of an investigative fellowship aimed at early-career Black journalists, and Alex Lupul, a recent graduate of Loyalist College who will spend six weeks with The Canadian Press as part of a photojournalism fellowship.
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