Local Journalist and Whatcom Watch Earn News Honors

Jennifer Karchmer is a former editor of Whatcom Watch. She teaches communication and journalism at Western Washington University.

Whatcom Watch and myself as a journalist have earned recognition for published work in the last year.

At a ceremony on May 18 held in Seattle, I received a First Place Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) award for my 3,000-word article “Take a Look at Iceland: Internet Freedom During Election Season” that appeared in the Oct-Nov 2012 edition of Whatcom Watch.

The article won in the Arts Reporting and Criticism News for Non-Daily Newspapers category as part of the 2012 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest. For this annual contest, entries come from freelance, independent and mainstream media reporters based in Region 10, which includes Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

At a dinner held at the Renaissance Seattle hotel, I accepted the award, a finely-etched glass situated on a small mahogany stand. At the podium, the emcee, Seattle Times columnist Nicole Brodeur, invited me to say a few words.

Off the cuff, I managed to thank fellow journalists around the globe.

“I have been a journalist since 1991 so I thank all of my predecessors who have done the good work before me. For those journalists who work in dangerous regions like Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Russia, Cuba, you have given me a deeper appreciation for my press freedom as an American,” I said.

Finally, I gave a shout out to young journalists to enter and stay with the profession, despite low pay, abysmal job prospects and a general mood of distrust among the public.

The winning article covers the six-week research project I conducted in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, from January to February 2012. I interviewed more than a dozen Icelandic journalists while researching Iceland’s approach to freedom of the press, information and expression.

In fact, you may have heard Iceland in the news recently as Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed the U.S. government’s secret surveillance programs, wants to seek asylum there. Iceland is positioning itself as an information safe haven, and you can read more on this topic on my professional website: www.jenniferkarchmer.com

For another article I wrote on the same topic this time published in The Reykjavik Grapevine, I received the First Place in International Reporting award from the Washington Press Association 2012 Communications Contest. The Grapevine is an English-language arts, entertainment and political news magazine based in Iceland, online and in print.

The WPA is a nonprofit for journalists, media professionals and students.

Affiliated with the National Federation of Press Women, officers from the WPA handed out the contest awards at a lunchtime ceremony on April 20 at the Museum of Flight.