A NEWS feature in The Irish Timeson religious freedom in the education sector has been announced as the winning entry in a European Commission competition for highlighting poverty and social exclusion.
Journalist Genevieve Carbery received the “Together against discrimination” EU Journalist Award 2011, and a voucher for €1,000, at a presentation in Dublin.
Her winning entry explored the compulsory requirement of a religion certificate for teachers applying for posts in Catholic-managed primary schools.
In presenting the award, Ruth Deasy, EU Commission representative in Ireland, said: “Genevieve’s article was an excellent exploration of discrimination on the grounds of religion. The calibre of entries this year was particularly high but Genevieve’s article stood out as special.
“Her work showed how an Irish interpretation of an EU law could lead to discrimination and how this was successfully put right by the Equality Tribunal.”
The entry will now be sent forward to represent Ireland at the European level of the competition.
