2013 Atlantic Journalism Awards Finalists
Attachments
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Short explanation of the story and how it developed: Through much of 2013, protestors, many from Elsipogtog First Nation in Kent County, New Brunswick, had been protesting shale gas exploration near their community. In September, things escalated. Protestors blocked a compound on Route 135, just outside the Village of Rexton, blocking access to vehicles and equipment being used by subcontractors of SWN Resources Canada. On Oct. 17Th, I received word the RCMP had moved in to enforce a court injunction against protestors. When I arrived, the Village of Rexton was locked down. The RCMP were not letting anyone in, but, I found a way. At the protest site, there was line of RCMP and a line of protestors facing off. It was tense. At one point there was a confrontation in the woods between protestors and police. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_uAErjbe6A I began reporting on it by calling back to the station where Sara Power, my fellow newsroom staffer, was standing by. I reported on the events as they were unfolding. Cell reception was spotty at best. For much of my time data and calling didn't work, but texting did. I relayed information to Ms. Power along with images. She would then update our website and feed information to Melanie Sampson, who was on air keeping people up-to-date with the information I was sending back from the scene. Eventually, early afternoon, things erupted. There was a push by protestors and police pushed back using pepper spray and bean bag bullets. They then began physically shoving protestors and media members back towards Rexton. I managed to capture this on video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjfMx-qf2wY When we uploaded this video to our Facebook page, it went viral. At last count, more than 870,000 people had viewed the video. As we got pushed back, six police vehicles were lit on fire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rayu4EewPM I eventually had to cut through the woods to get back to my vehicle to return home. Once there I did reports for our Fredericton and Moncton stations and the video of the clash was used by APTN for their national news. Here are links to some of our news pages: http://959sunfm.com/Blogs.asp?blogID=302&bloggerID=5 http://959sunfm.com/Blogs.asp?blogID=304&bloggerID=5 http://959sunfm.com/Blogs.asp?blogID=306&bloggerID=5 http://959sunfm.com/Blogs.asp?blogID=307&bloggerID=5 |
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Resources of the newsroom (money and time) available to complete the story: Please note and visit the links as included in the explanation section. |
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