Toronto Globe & Mail Reporter wins PAHO Centennial Journalism Contest
Washington, September 09, 2002 (PAHO) - André Picard, a reporter for the Toronto Globe & Mail, has been named the winner of the Pan American Health Organization's Centennial Journalism Contest.
Picard's entry, a series of articles on the obesity epidemic, illustrate one of the most serious public health problems in Canada, and throughout the Americas: Obesity. The "Fattest or Fittest" series generated public debate and had a marked impact on public policy in Canada. Picard, a public health reporter, conceived, researched and wrote the series, looking at obesity and inactivity from the public health, economic, medical, biological and political perspectives.
Picard, the winner of the hemisphere-wide contest was selected by a panel of independent journalists from among national winners in each country. (In the United States, Marisol Bello, a special projects reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, won the Pan American Health Organization's U.S. contest for best public health reporting for a special section on "Haiti, Mission of Hope.")
The Pan American Health Organization's Centennial Journalism Award, open to all professional journalists working for newspapers in the Americas, was established in honor of the Organization's 100th anniversary, being celebrated this year. Criteria for the PAHO award for excellence in coverage of international public health issues included content, style, and research.
The winner of each national contest was selected by a panel of independent judges, and automatically entered in the hemisphere-wide award competition. The Pan American winner receives a $3,000 prize, and is invited to Washington D.C. the week of September 23rd to receive the award during the Pan American Sanitary Conference, the policy-setting body composed of ministers of health from all countries in the Americas.
PAHO, which also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, was established officially in 1902. It is celebrating 100 years of work with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and raise the living standards of their peoples.
For more information, please contact: Daniel Epstein, Office of Public Information, (202) 974-3459, e-mail: epsteind@paho.org.