The finalists for the 2015 British Journalism Awards in association with Audi have been announced today.
Launched in the wake of the hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry, the Press Gazette-organised awards are now in their fourth year and recognise journalism that is both interesting to the public and in the public interest.
This year there was a record number of entries, with more than 300 submissions for the 15 categories.
The awards are open to all journalists producing work for a UK audience. This year there were entries from every UK national newspaper group as well as the major broadcasters.
The shortlists were compiled by a panel of 24 judges chosen for their experience and independence.
The judges were asked to create shortlists of six for each category. In the Foreign Affairs, Business and Investigation categories they opted to have shortlists of eight because of the high number of entries and the quality of work submitted.
Chairman of judges and Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford said: “The quality of work submitted in these awards has increased every year. In a media world where anyone with a blog can call themselves a journalist, the big news organisations are clearly investing heavily in serious journalism to help distinguish themselves from the online chatter and noise.
“It was particularly good to see so many entries this year from the tabloid end of the newspaper market, which does not always get the credit it deserves for campaigning and investigative journalism.
“The standard of journalism submitted to these awards was humbling and inspiring. With more than 300 entries for 15 awards categories, making it on to the list of finalists is an impressive achievement.”
The winners will be announced at the British Journalism Awards reception at Stationers' Hall on 1 December.
Attendance at the event is by invitation only with all shortlisted journalists on the guest list.
Event queries should be made to britishjournalismawards@pressgazette.co.uk.
Sponsorship enquiries should be directed to rahul.nair@pressgazette.co.uk.
Note: There is no shortlist for the prizes of Journalist of the Year and the Marie Colvin Award for raising the reputation of journalism. Both of these will be awarded on the night after consultation between all the judges.
Breaking News Award (for the best story of the year)
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Ben Ellery – The Mail on Sunday
62p an hour – That’s what the women sleeping 16 to a room get paid…to make Ed and Harriet’s £45 ‘This is What A Feminist Looks Like’ T-shirts -
Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott and Bojan Pancevski (Insight) – The Sunday Times
Fifa coverage and Sepp Blatter: 'Swiss prosecutors target Blatter as Prince William demands clean-up' -
Lucy Manning, Ed Campbell and Steve Swann – BBC News
Unmasking ‘Jihadi John’ -
Russell Myers – Daily Mirror
'The diamond geezers – Caught! Incredible moment £60m gem raiders are seen on CCTV' -
Simon Johnson, Peter Dominiczak – The Daily Telegraph
‘Sturgeon’s secret backing for Cameron’ -
Stephen Moyes – The Sun
‘Lord coke – Top peer’s drug binges with £200 prostitutes'
Business, Finance and Economics Journalism sponsored by TSB
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Ben Chu – The Independent and i
‘Osborne’s debt time bomb’, ‘Chancellor ignored advice from Treasure to launch Help to Buy’ and ‘Osborne will miss target of doubling exports’ -
Daniel Jones – The Sun
Compare The FatCats, The Great Stitch Up and You phonies -
Charles Levinson – Reuters
US banks move billions of dollars in trades beyond Washington’s reach -
Harry Wilson – The Times
‘Labour chief given £1.5m shares from tax haven’, ‘Flash crash rigging is rife, warn traders’ and ‘Regulators struck secret deal to dilute damages paid by big banks’ -
Nick Mathiason – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
A Great British Housing Crisis -
Rupert Steiner – Daily Mail
'The backroom deals that have cost Tesco dear', 'Suppliers to Tesco launch inquiries' and 'Tesco’s bullying tactics' -
Ruth Sutherland and Laura Chesters – Daily Mail
'Michael Howard is a Tory giant. So how has he got entangled in a slew of doubtful companies and a fraud probe in a war-torn hell hole?', 'Fifa fiasco yet another own goal for KPMG' and 'Why Britain is best for women wealth creators' -
Simon Neville – Evening Standard and Independent
'Now Bill’s restaurants ‘take service charge’, 'Tips ‘rip-off’ is exposed at Côte chain' and ‘To say that dual pricing is impossible at airports is simply untrue’
Campaign of the Year
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David Jones, Sam Greenhill, Ian Drury and Jack Doyle – Daily Mail
US Gulag That Shames the West – Campaign for the closure of Guantanamo Bay and the release of Shaker Aamer -
James Randerson, Amanda Michel, Emma Howard, Damian Carrington, Simon Bowers, Francesca Panetta, Adam Vaughan, Terry Macalister, John Mullin, Suzanne Goldenberg, Lindsay Poulton and Nabeelah Shabbir – The Guardian
Keep it in the Ground -
Jonathan Leake – The Sunday Times
Clean Air campaign -
Richard Pendlebury and Sam Greenhill – Daily Mail
Justice for Sergeant Blackman -
Sam Blackledge – The Plymouth Herald
Safer Spaces campaign -
Sharon Hendy and Sam Carlisle – The Sun
Give Me Shelter
Digital Innovation sponsored by Citi
Foreign Affairs Journalism
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Anthony Loyd – The Times
‘Don’t ask what I dream about. I’ve stopped counting the dead’, ‘Five months after he was kidnapped and shot in Syria, Times correspondent Anthony Loyd is back in action – on a very different battleground’ and ‘Orphaned, rejected and afraid: plight of the ebola children’ -
Christina Lamb – The Sunday Times
‘We think it’s all over [report from Helmand], ‘I’m afraid of the sea, but I’ll do anything to get out’ and ‘My son, the killer, couldn’t hurt a mouse’ -
Gabriel Gatehouse, Warwick Harrington, Chris Alcock, Nick Menzies and Alistair Candelin – BBC Newsnight
Two part-series of reports from Liberia on the Ebola epidemic viewable here and here and Escape to Europe: Migrant boat story -
Ian Birrell – The Mail on Sunday
‘Bonfire of the Ebola victims’, ‘Dying to Leave the Euro’ and ‘Voyage of the damned’. -
Kim Sengupta – The Independent
‘How Syria lost its humanity’, ‘The trafficker who’s making $50,000 a week from his tide of misery’ and ‘After four boys were killed on a beach by Israeli missiles during the bombardment of Gaza, their surviving relatives decided to escape for a new life in Europe – and put their safety in the hands of people traffickers. Then tragedy struck again…’ -
Ned Parker and Iraq bureau team – Reuters
‘How Mosul fell – a general’s story’, ‘Iran’s men in Baghdad’ and ‘How Islamic State uses wheat to tighten its grip in Iraq’ -
Aris Roussinos – Vice News
Peshmerga versus the Islamic State: The Road to Mosul -
Patrick Kingsley – The Guardian
'Libya's people smugglers: inside the trade that sells refugees hopes of a better life'. 'The Journey: Syrian refugee Hashem Alsouki risks his life crossing the Mediterranean, his sights set on Sweden – and freedom for his family' and 'It's not at war, but up to 3% of its people have fled. What is going on in Eritrea?'
Investigation of the Year sponsored by Public Concern at Work
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Katherine Faulkner, Paul Bentley and Lucy Osborne (Mail Investigations Unit) – Daily Mail
‘Your Privacy for Sale’ -
Chris Cook and Alan White – BBC Newsnight/Buzzfeed News
Kids Company investigation -
Liam McDougall, Sandeep Gill, Samantha Poling – BBC Scotland
The Dog Factory -
Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott and David Collins – The Sunday Times
The Doping Scandal -
Juliette Garside, James Ball, David Leigh and David Pegg – The Guardian
HSBC Files -
Wael Dabbous and Cathy Newman – Channel 4 Unreported World/Quicksilver Media
Manhunt: Closing in on a British Paedophile -
Peter Apps – Inside Housing
Right to Buy to Let -
Simon Murphy – The Mail on Sunday
‘Oxfam targets donors aged 98’
Local Heroes Award
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Andrew Gilligan – The Daily and Sunday Telegraph
Investigation into corruption, electoral fraud and links to extremism of Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman -
Jeanette Oldham – Trinity Mirror Midlands (Birmingham Mail)
‘Birmingham City Council hid links between Asian cabbies and child sex victims for 23 years’, ‘West Midlands Police report reveals 75 per cent of known on-street child sex groomers are Asian’ and ‘Child Sexual Exploitation: We force West Midlands Police to release secret report which confirms 'significant similarities' with Rotherham scandal’ -
Jennifer O’Leary – Spotlight, BBC Northern Ireland
A Woman Alone with the IRA -
Jonathan Gibson – BBC Inside Out West Midlands
Chip and Pin Fraud -
Nick Southall – BBC Radio Shropshire
Baby ashes scandal -
Robert Golledge – Express and Star
‘Missing millions of playboy star’, ‘Inside the EDL’ and ‘In the Jungle’
New Journalist of the Year sponsored by Stationers' Crown Woods Academy
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Ben Leo – The Argus, Brighton
‘Busiest London train late for a whole year’, ‘How safe and secure is it inside Lewes Prison?’ and ‘Care contract pulled amid abuse probe’ -
Crofton Black – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
‘Only 29 detainees from secret CIA torture program remain in Guantánamo Bay’, ‘US Senate Intelligence Committee corrects CIA torture report after Bureau probe’ and ‘How CIA used windowless warehouse in Lithouania as secret prison’ -
Jake Ryan – The Sun
‘I was recruited as Jihadi bride’, ‘Wedding stinger – We smash £10k sham marriage racket run by Romanian gang’ and ‘Violent con’s sex romps as guard sleeps’ -
Josh Boswell – The Sunday Times
'Top Tory ensnared in tax probe’, ‘Cold callers push clients into false accident claims’ and ‘Offshore firms grab £150bn of UK property’ -
Rossalyn Warren – Buzzfeed
Interactive timeline featuring memories of the 7/7 terror attacks, ‘What Happened When A Woman Confronted The Troll Who Pretended To Be Her Dead Father’ and ‘Here’s What It’s Like For Women And Children Refugees Fleeing War’ -
Simon Murphy – The Mail on Sunday
‘Oxfam targets donors aged 98’, ‘Revealed: New boss of investigation into VIP child abuse claims is linked to Leon Brittan’ and ‘Jihadi hunters…or fantasists?’
Photojournalism
Jack Hill – The Times
Stefan Rousseau – Press Association
Philip Coburn – Daily Mirror
Kai Wiedenhofer – The Sunday Times
Manu Brabo – The Sunday Times
Will Wintercross – The Daily Telegraph
Politics Journalism sponsored by Mediafocus
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Claire Newell, Antony Barnett, Edward Malnick – The Daily Telegraph/ Channel 4's Dispatches/Vera Productions
Jack Straw and Sir Malcom Rikfind ‘cash for access’ revelations -
Michael Savage and Rachel Sylvester – The Times
‘David Miliband: my pain over Ed’s Labour failure’, ‘Ed’s five-year suicide note left Labour doomed from the start’ and ‘Defeat is doubly painful because it is my brother’ -
Tim Minogue – Private Eye
‘Rotten boroughs’ -
Tom Newton Dunn – The Sun
‘Plebgate – what really happened’ -
Jeanette Oldham – Trinity Mirror Midlands (Birmingham Mail)
‘Birmingham City Council hid links between Asian cabbies and child sex victims for 23 years’ -
Patrick Wintour, Nicholas Watt and Severin Carrell – The Guardian
In-depth features: ‘The Clegg catastrophe’, ‘The undoing of Ed Miliband’ and ‘Britain on the brink’.
Popular Journalism sponsored by Bournemouth University
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Andrew Gregory, Jo Kelly and Heather Bowen – Daily Mirror/Mirror Online
‘Teddy’s Story – Britain’s youngest organ donor’ -
Nick Fagge – Mail Online Global
‘An utterly horrifying encounter with the FGM cutter women…’, ‘Mail Online reporter buys Syrian papers being sold to ISIS fighters sneaking into Europe hidden among refugees’ and ‘ISIS leader al-Baghdadi sanctioned a woman to be beheaded as a wedding present…’ -
Mike Ridley – The Sun
‘Lee’s son gives me the will to live – says hero’s father phil’ -
News team – Mail on Sunday
'62p an hour – That’s what the women sleeping 16 to a room get paid…to make Ed and Harriet’s £45 ‘This is What A Feminist Looks Like’ T-shirts', ‘MoS reporter is first to contact UK schoolgirl who fled to Syria – and this is her sick vedict on Tunisia massacre…Laugh Out Load’ and ‘Exposed: Tory’s plot with race thugs to fix election’ -
Stephen Wright and Jamie Wiseman – Daily Mail
‘Blunders left evil nurse free to kill on NHS ward’, ‘Overseas nurses ‘must face more stringent checks’ and ‘Drug addict and fantasist who tricked his way into the UK’ -
Tom Morgan and Jonathan Reilly – The Sun
Their royal heillnesses – Secret 1933 film shows Edward VIII teaching this Nazi salute to the Queen’
Science and Technology sponsored by Astellas
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Computer Weekly editorial team
Post Office Horizon IT system investigation -
Deborah Cohen – BMJ
‘Why have UK doctors been deterred from prescribing Avastin?’ -
Paul Gallagher – The Independent on Sunday
‘NHS mental health trust in bullying claim’, ‘The £4m NHS funds wasted by Broadmoor’ and Broadmoor attacks fuel fears that cuts to mental health staff are putting employees and the public at risk -
Jonathan Leake – The Sunday Times
Clean Air Campaign on the dangers of diesel fuel emissions -
Natasha Loder – The Economist
‘Genome editing – The age of the red pen’ -
Juliana Ruhfus and Darius Bazargan – Al Jazeera English
People and Power – Syria’s Electronic Armies
Sports Journalism sponsored by sportcal
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Alessandro Righi and Emanuele Piano – Al Jazeera English
Killing the Ball -
Oliver Brown – The Daily Telegraph
‘Football’s dark secret…player trafficking’, ‘Heysel: The night of violence the game still shamefully ignores’ and Valcke: Blatter's sly sidekick -
Ian Herbert – The Independent
'The Fire Inside', 'Augusta and the great class divide – 'We were proud that a black man had won.'
and ‘Too much money, too much time’ -
Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott and David Collins – The Sunday Times
The Doping Scandal -
Mark Daly, Murdoch Rodgers and David Epstein – BBC Scotland/Panorama/ProPublica
‘Catch Me If You Can’ investigation into athletics doping -
Owen Gibson – The Guardian
'Turning black gold into sporting glitter: what Azerbaijan tells us about modern sport', 'Why is Azerbaijan buying up sporting events?' and 'Azerbaijan bans Guardian from reporting on Baku European Games'
The British Journalism Awards are sponsored by:
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