Two reporters and three other staff members from the Prince George Citizen were recognized at the Ma Murray Awards from the B.C. Yukon Community Newspapers Association on Saturday.
Samantha Wright Allen, who left The Citizen in January for Ottawa, won the business writing category for her examination of how the City of Prince George and the Northern Development Initiative Trust offered development funds to kickstart the Marriott Hotel project.
"Wright Allen used all the tools available to her including an FOI (freedom of information) request to reveal the competing interests and potential conflicts in a controversial downtown revitalization project in Prince George with the bunker-like foundation of an already once-failed hotel sitting unfinished in the middle of downtown," the category judge wrote. "This series of stories brings transparency to what was going on behind the scenes and gives readers vital information to question the wisdom of what officials are doing."
Wright Allen also took second place in the investigative journalism category for her work chronicling the shortage of physiotherapists in the region. She won that category last year for her series on local residents living with brain injuries.
Reporter Frank Peebles took second place Saturday in the feature writing category for his gripping account of a group that survived a bear attack.
"This feature struck home for its ability to give the reader a true sense of activity being in the woods with the hunting party. It would not be out of place in a collection of Jack London Tales except that it is true," wrote the category's judge.
Citizen publisher Colleen Sparrow, photographer Brent Braaten and accounts clerk Nelda McInnes received Silver Quill Recognition Awards for 25 years of service in the B.C. newspaper industry.
