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VI Free Daily honoured for #MeToo at work

Multimedia series gold one of several BCYCNA awards for VI Free Daily contributors
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Katya Slepian and Ashley Wadhwani accept gold in the KPU Multimedia Series Award category at Saturday’s Ma Murray Awards. Presenting the award is Marlyn Graziano of KPU. BCYCNA photo

A Vancouver Island Free Daily team has been honoured by their peers for some of the best community journalism produced in B.C. last year.

#MeToo at Work, a detailed multi-part look at how sexual harrassment in the workplace is as much a problem for B.C.’s working women as it is for Hollywood starlets was honoured Saturday by the British Columbia/Yukon Community Newspaper Association with gold in the multi-media category.

Karly Blats, Katya Slepian, Arnold Lim and Ashley Wadhwani mixed words, photos and video to share the stories of women confronting a culture of harrassment in the workplace in a way that both addressed the globe’s biggest story of 2017 and brought it home to the communities where we live.

“(This was) a different angle on the #metoo movement that shook the nation and acted as a catalyst for change,” the judge’s comments said. “An in-depth look at workplace sexual abuse and harassment that has been overlooked for far too long. #MeToo at work gives a voice to the voiceless and a trusted platform for victims to share their stories. Tremendous reporting.”

Read the entire series here

They weren’t the only VI Free Daily contributors honoured during the weekend Ma Murray gala in Richmond.

Publisher Peter McCully took bronze in the photo essay category, Oak Bay correspondent Keri Coles won bronze for her sports photo and gold for her multimedia feature, Port Hardy correspondent Tyson Whitney took silver for his spot news photo, Campbell River’s Mike Davies won bronze in arts and culture writing, West Coast reporter Andrew Bailey took gold for environmental initiative, Nanaimo reporters Karl Yu and Tamara Cunningham were awarded gold and silver respectively for feature writing, West Shore reporter Kendra Wong earned bronze for her multimedia feature and Saanich’s Travis Paterson went home with silver for sports writing and bronze for multi-media breaking news.

The Ma Murray awards annually honour the best in community journalism from communities across BC and the Yukon