Story Katie Hyslop
Photo Megafon, Norway
Megaphone Magazine received kudos and recognition in May in the form of three journalism awards, which included two international accolades: Editor-in-Chief Sean Condon and photographer Ahmad Kavousian both received International Street Paper awards, while Managing Editor Amy Juschka received the Rafe Mair Award for Excellence in Journalism from the University of British Columbia.
“Winning the International Street Paper awards was truly one of the greatest accomplishments that Megaphone’s been able to do,” said Condon, who received the Special Award for External Press for his piece ‘Falling Through the Cracks,’ which originally appeared in The Tyee in October 2008 and was later republished in Megaphone.
“It’s a really humbling experience being around the other street papers and so to be recognized amongst that group is a great honour.”
Condon’s piece focused on the life and untimely death of Downtown Eastside resident Paul "Duncan" Giesbrecht, who died last September while waiting for supportive housing that was just days away from being ready.
This is the second year for the International Street Paper awards, handed out by the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) whose members include over 100 street papers from around the world. The awards ceremony took place at the INSP conference on May 14 in Bergen, Norway, where Condon happily accepted the awards on Megaphone’s behalf.
Condon says that while Megaphone was well received by other papers at the conference, many were shocked to discover the depths of the poverty experienced in Vancouver.
“For a city that’s often ranked right up there with European cities on the livability index, that it can have such abject poverty and such rampant drug abuse, people were genuinely disturbed that we’ve allowed this to happen for so long and that some of our solutions are actually quite insensitive,” said Condon.
Megaphone submitted entries for all seven awards categories and received nominations for Condon’s piece, for Kavousian’s photograph ‘Functionality’, which shows a hammock rigged to a piece of public art on a Vancouver beach, and for Best Feature Story for Juschka’s piece ‘Doubled Over,’ about the infamous Single Room Occupancy (SRO) landlords the Laudisio family, which appeared in Megaphone Issue 11.
Though she didn’t win the INSP award, Juschka’s piece did earn her the Rafe Mair Award for Excellence in Journalism from UBC’s School of Journalism on May 20. “It was a surprise—it was really nice to win and it made me feel really appreciated by the school that they notice all the hard work that we do at Megaphone,” said Juschka, who also received a scholarship award from the BC & Yukon Community Newspaper Association in April for her work with Megaphone.
Though proud of Megaphone’s accomplishments, Condon thinks these awards are important because they show B.C. that the world is aware of the province’s social problems.
“It’s really great for us to be able to come back to Canada, to come back to Vancouver and show the city that what we’re doing is being recognized around the world, and that helps us a great deal, because suddenly we can tell people in our city that people are paying attention to the street paper and to the issues that we are trying to raise awareness to,” he said.
“I think that that’s a good lesson for Vancouver, that the world is watching.”
