The Globe wins six National Newspaper Awards; Robyn Doolittle named Journalist of the Year

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The Globe and Mail won the most honours at the 69th National Newspaper Awards, taking the top prize in six of 21 categories. In addition, The Globe’s Robyn Doolittle took the award for 2017 Journalist of the Year.

The six wins exceeded the four each won by The Toronto Star and Montreal’s La Presse.

“We are gratified The Globe won more awards than anyone in this annual competition. Amid such competition, Robyn Doolittle was named Journalist of the Year. We are dedicated to continuing that success,” said David Walmsley, The Globe’s editor-in-chief.

The Globe awards included a win in the Investigations category for the Unfounded series by Ms. Doolitte, which revealed how frequently police forces across Canada concluded that sexual-assault allegations, even in cases of strong evidence, did not warrant the laying of charges.

“The series, which involved 20 months of painstaking investigation and interviews by Ms. Doolittle, led police forces across the country to re-examine thousands of case files and reopen hundreds,” said a statement from the NNA.

Ms. Doolittle was also selected by a panel of three former NNA winners as 2017 Journalist of the Year, with the NNA organization saying in a statement that judges saw Unfounded as “exceptional” investigative reporting that required a massive amount of research and verification by Ms. Doolittle “as well as a respectful approach to the complainants she interviewed.”

Other Globe wins among 18 nominations in 13 categories included Eric Andrew-Gee, honoured in the Arts and Entertainment category for a look at the disputed heritage of renowned Canadian author Joseph Boyden, and Sean Fine’s Beat Reporting prize for an examination of Canada’s judicial system after time limits on criminal proceedings were imposed by the Supreme Court.

Overall, there were 63 finalists in the 21 categories, selected from 881 entries for work published in 2017 at daily newspapers, news agencies and online news sites.

Globe staff or freelancers won in the following categories:

• Arts and Entertainment: Eric Andrew-Gee
• Beat Reporting: Sean Fine.
• Investigations: Robyn Doolittle.
• News Photo: Ian Willms, for a photograph of an asylum-seeker from Nigeria fleeing to Canada.
• Presentation: Jeremy Agius and Matthew French
• Short Feature: Marcus Gee for explaining what the death of a small-city newspaper would really mean for that community.

Among the 21 categories in the annual competition, five were won by groundbreaking investigative efforts, the NNA organizers noted in a statement.

Other awards won Friday were by the Edmonton Journal, Hamilton Spectator, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, St. Catharines Standard and Vancouver Sun.