Canadian Association of Journalists

The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ; French: Association Canadienne des Journalistes) is one of several Canadian organizations of journalists. It was created to promote excellence in journalism and encourage investigative journalism. The CAJ is one of several national voices for Canadian journalists—the only one with a coast-to-coast presence and run by journalists practising across all media.

The CAJ was founded in 1978 as the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ). A few senior Canadian journalists founded the CIJ to counteract the isolation of the one or two reporters in the average newsroom who did investigative work. One of CIJ's initiatives was the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom group that later became Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). In 1990, the organization changed its name to its current form to reflect a broader emphasis on all journalism and attract additional members. Promoting investigate journalism remains one of the CAJ's main goals.

The Canadian Association of Journalists runs an annual awards program recognizing the best in Canadian journalism, with a particular focus on journalism that is investigative in nature. Entries are welcome from any practising journalist whose work has been published or broadcast in Canada. A call for entries is usually issued in December–January, with a deadline in late January or early February. Once judging is complete, a list of the finalists in each category is released. The winning entry in each category is announced as part of the banquet during the annual conference each spring.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

These categories recognize journalism in a variety of media as set out below. Entries don’t have to be purely investigative to qualify; investigative entries are given added weight. Direction to judges include such items as effective use of the medium the entry was published or broadcast in, thoroughness of research, relevance and any outcomes arising from the entry’s publication or broadcast. Items based on the same body of research, regardless of which medium they were released in, can only be entered in one category. Entries are awarded in the categories below, with the winner of the Don McGillivray Award for Investigative Journalism chosen from amongst these categories.

Open newspaper / wire service Entries welcomed for any article published in a Canadian newspaper or wire service, regardless of circulation or publication frequency. Print articles published exclusively on newspaper websites are also eligible.

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