Awards honouring media aid work to end child sexual exploitation

WINNIPEG, Nov. 18 /CNW/ - Beyond Borders, a non-profit dedicated to fighting child sexual exploitation, will hold its eighth annual Media Awards on November 19, 2010, at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg. The ceremony will be hosted by Rick Campanelli (ET Canada) and Danielle Ouimet (Quebec actress).

The bilingual awards honour Canadian professional and student journalists and filmmakers for exceptional coverage of child sexual exploitation issues. Thirty nominees are competing in five categories to take home an award.

"When journalists cover this issue it forces Canadians to ask what we need to do as a country to protect children," says Deborah Zanke, co-chair of the awards. "These awards recognize this valuable role."

The event will begin with a keynote address, Combating Child Sex Tourism, delivered by Meredith Ralston, an award-winning filmmaker and academic whose development work in the Philippines led to the production of an eye-opening documentary, Selling Sex in Heaven, about sex tourism in that country.

"The scourge of child sex tourism affects countries around the world, especially those that have relatively limited resources to combat it. I believe it is Canada's responsibility to help those beyond our borders fight this global problem," says Ralston. 

Franco-Manitoban pop star Daniel ROA and teenaged brother and sister duo Moises and Mimoza Duot (YTV's The Next Star 2008 semi-finalist and 2010 finalist, respectively), will perform at the awards.

The keynote and ceremony runs from 2-5 p.m., and includes an intermission with cocktails and appetizers.

Beyond Borders is Canada's global voice against child sexual exploitation. It is the Canadian representative of ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) operating in 75 countries around the world. Visit beyondborders.org for more information as well as a full list of media awards nominees.

For further information:

Deborah Zanke, [phone]
Jennifer Clark, [phone]