FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 25, 2021

WINNER NAMED FOR TWENTY SIXTH MARTIN WISE GOODMAN CANADIAN NIEMAN FELLOWSHIP

The trustees of the Martin Wise Goodman Trust announce that PACINTHE MATTAR, a Toronto based journalist, producer and writer, has been awarded the twenty sixth Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

This fellowship is funded by a publicly subscribed permanent endowment in memory of Martin Wise Goodman, late President of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.

Ms. Mattar will join the 84th class of Nieman Fellows at Harvard University. The fellowship carries a stipend for living expenses and payment of fees to Harvard University.

"This is a dream come true, and I can still hardly believe it's happening to me,” Ms. Mattar said after the Canadian Nieman Fellowship Selection committee awarded her the biennial fellowship. “I'm so deeply grateful to the Goodman family for extending me this once- in-a-lifetime opportunity, and beyond humbled that I am following in the footsteps of some of the best journalists by being chosen as this year's Canadian Nieman Fellow. Thank you to the Martin Wise Goodman Trust, and the Nieman Foundation, for supporting me in my goal to improve the field of journalism at this critical juncture. I can't wait to get to spend the year ahead at Harvard University where I will have time to follow my curiosity, my interests, my passion, and share them alongside the other Nieman fellows who I am so excited to learn from. I look forward to an invigorating, inspiring, and game-changing year ahead." While at Harvard, Ms. Mattar will study how newsrooms and newsmaking can adapt to better foster, retain and promote Black, Indigenous and racialized journalists, focusing on how diversity initiatives can go beyond surface-level platitudes and lead to more representative newsrooms and coverage.

Pacinthe Mattar has most recently been a senior producer at Antica Productions. She spent a decade at the CBC where she covered everything from Middle East politics, pop culture, race, refugees and migration, Indigenous issues and more. Her work received a 2018 Silver at the New York Radio Festival Awards, as well as a 2015 Gracie Award. Her work has appeared on CBC, Buzzfeed, Toronto Life, Chatelaine, and The Walrus. Her feature article, “Objectivity Is A Privilege Afforded To White Journalists” for The Walrus was long-listed for the 2020 Allan Slaight Journalism Prize. In 2018 she was selected as an Arthur F. Burns Fellow.

The Nieman Fellowships were established for American journalists in 1938 in memory of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of the Milwaukee Journal. It provides for a year of study for working journalists in any department of Harvard University as well as a seminar program. Previously, thirteen Canadian journalists had gone to Harvard on this program under other funding, including Martin Goodman (Nieman fellow class of '62).

Pacinthe represents the best of Canadian journalism. The Selection Committee was very impressed with Pacinthe’s editorial acumen, her courage, and her commitment to improving diversity in the newsrooms of the future,” said Jonathan Goodman, Chairman of the Canadian Nieman Fellowship.

The first twenty-five recipients of the Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowships were as follows: Paul Knox of , Gregory Weston of the Citizen, Mary Lou Finlay of CBC Radio Toronto, Jamie Lamb of the Sun, Jonathon Ferguson of the Toronto Star, Jennifer Lewington of the Globe and Mail, Tom Regan of the Halifax Daily News, Joe Hall of the Toronto Star, Terry Gilbert of the Calgary Herald, Paul Carvalho of CBC TV News Montreal, Laura Eggerston of Canadian Press, Bonnie Lafave of CBC TV Toronto, Jim Meek of the Halifax Herald, Laura Lynch of CBC Radio Vancouver, Paule Robitaille of CBC Latin American Bureau, John Geddes of Maclean’s Magazine, Christian Rioux of Le Devoir, Bill Schiller of the Toronto Star, James Baxter of the Journal, Jana Juginovic of CTV, David Skok of globalnews.ca, Laura-Julie Perreault of La Presse, Stephen Maher of Postmedia News, Michael Petrou, freelance journalist and foreign correspondent, and Karyn Pugliese, Executive Director of News and Current Affairs at APTN.

This year’s Canadian Nieman Fellowship Selection committee consisted of Anne Marie Lipinski, Curator, The Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University; Ed Greenspon, President and CEO, Public Policy Forum; John Honderich, former Publisher of the Toronto Star; Malcom Kirk, President of Canadian Press; Douglas Knight, Chair and CEO of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards; Laura Lynch, Host of CBC’s What on Earth, Karyn Pugliese, Assistant Professor ; David Skok, CEO & Editor-in- Chief at the Logic; Jonathan Goodman, Global Managing Partner of Monitor Deloitte and Chair of the Canadian Nieman Fellowship; Lauren Goodman, Administrator of the Canadian Nieman Fellowship; and Janis Goodman, wife of the late Martin Goodman. Laura Lynch, Karyn Pugliese and David Skok are former Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellows.

For any further information, visit https://canadiannieman.blogspot.com/ Or contact Lauren Goodman at [email protected] or 416-878-9777

PDF file and photo attached; photo credit Taiwo Bah