Mehregon Winning the 7th NEPMCC Annual Awards
By: Mei Shao

NEPMCC, the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada hosted its 7^th annual awards ceremony on Friday, October 28, at 6 pm, in the Lieutenant Governor’s Suite, at the main legislative building at Queen’s Park. This was the 7^th time that it was held in the Lieutenant Governor’s suite and the 4^th time by the current Governor, the Honorable David C. Onley.

Each escorted to the stand by a Civil Officer, 32 recipients of the 2011 award received their recognition from the Lieutenant Governor, the honorable David C. Onley and the President of NEPMCC, Mr. Thomas Saras, including the President and Editor-in-Chief for Mehregon Magazine, Mr. Fardad Fereshteh Housh.

Mehregon Magazine won the award in the category of “Best in Editorial and Visual Presentation”. The recipients represent 21 communities across Canada including (alphabetical order): Afghanistan, Armenian, Brazilian, Caribbean, Chinese, Estonia, Greek, India, Iranian, Pakistan, Russia, Slovakia and Somalia. Among the 32 recipients, 6 of them are from Iranian communities, which made them the biggest winning group of this year.

The recipients include 10 individuals for the ‘Distinguished Services’ they offered to Canadian communities, 5 Journalists for ‘Professional Excellence’, 14 newspapers for excellence in editorial and/or visual presentation, 2 magazines and 1 TV station for best and informative concept. These individuals are (by category):

Distinguished Services
Mr. Ariannejad, Mehrdad / Humanities and Culture - Social Justice / Persian
Ms. Niazi, Adeena / Social Justice and  Equality / Afghani
Mr. Viola, Arturo Tapiador  / Humanities and Community Service / Filipino

Individuals

Ms. Dionisio, Ma-Anne / “Culture and Performing Arts / Filipino
Mr. Esfahanizadeh, Behnam / Community and Social Service / Iranian
Mr. Getachew, Samuel / Culture and Arts / Ethiopian
Mr. Kuru, Yogarajh / Community Services / Tamil
Mr. Mathivasan Seenivasagam / Humanities and Equality / Tamil
Mr. Sheikholeslami, Mohammad / Humanities and Social Services / Iranian
Ms. Tsoublekas, Jeanne-Marie / Humanities and Community / Greek Montreal

Journalists
Mr. Kontos, Yiannis / Emphasis World on Line Mag. / Hellenic Toronto
Mr. Leung, Jimmy / Freelance TV / Chinese
Mr. Soltanpour, Saeed / Freelance Journalism / Iranian
Mr. Tabatabaei, Pooyan / Photojournalist / Persian
Mr. Ranjith, Wikramasinge / Voice of Lanka TV / Sri Lankan

Newspapers Community

Mr. Behul, Julius / Kanadsky Slovak Newspaper / Slovak
Mr. Bhuiyan, Rafique / Weekly Jogajog / Newspaper /  Bengali
Mr. Busuri, Mohamed / Somali Canadian Times / Somali
Ms. Cherny, Luba / Canada Courier / Newspaper / Russian
Ms. Gideon, Marcelle / Magic Carpet Media / Arabic
Mr. Karakachian, Vahakn / Horizon Weekly Newspaper / Armenian
Ms. Lin, L. Kathy / Chinese Canadian Times / Chinese
Mr. Malik, Ravinder / Weekly Times of India / Hindi
Mr. Muluken, Muchie / Hawarya News Newspaper / Ethiopian
Ms. Prabhakar, Rakhi / Asian Connections Newspaper / South Asian
Ms. Puusaag, Elle / Eesti Elu Newspaper / Estonian
Mr. Ramkhelawan, Harry / Indo Caribbean World / Caribbean
Mr. Riikonen, Jonathan / Vapaa Sana Newspaper / Finish
Mr. Sardar, Tariq / Nation Urdu Newspaper / Pakistani

Magazines
Mr. Fereshteh Housh, Fardad / Mehregon Magazine / Iranian
Ms. Melo, Isa / etc & tal Magazine / Brazilian

Radio and Television
Mr. Mazuruc,  Andrei / NTV Canada / Russian

About NEPMCC

NEPMCC, founded 26 years ago in 1985, is the only national Ethnic Press and Media organization in the Country. The aim of this organization is to record and to be a source of history of the vitality and dynamism of the Canadian Press and Media in the non official languages, and their influence and contributions during a period of enormous changes of the Canadian society. It particularly focuses on changes which affected the large segment of the Canadian population of other descent than English or French.

The role of THE NATIONAL ETHNIC PRESS AND MEDIA COUNCIL OF CANADA is to represent  the members of the foreign languages publications of Canada, on the Federal and Provincial levels and  to take a stand on fundamental questions such as the national unity, equality among Canadians, the respect of human rights, social justice and social acceptability for every citizen or Canadian resident, as well as the preservation and respect of the cultural heritage of all Canadians and finally an input in the development of the Canadian Foreign policy.

For the last twenty six years the ethnic press and its member organizations have shown considerable development as well as linguistic and ideological diversity, as educated immigrants from various parts of the world arrive in Canada every single day.

As Canada becomes more open and willing to accept an inclusive for all policy, the ethnic press and its members will be great influences in shaping the “just society”, by bringing changes and new ideas to education and the socioeconomic affairs of the Canadian society.