— The full list of winners
— Video: Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger
— Video: Interviewer of the year Caitlin Moran’s speech
The Guardian has tonight been crowned newspaper of the year at the Press Awards – and was praised by judges for its partnership with Wikileaks.
The publication of leaked US embassy cables “put The Guardian at the top of the news headlines and some say it will change relationships between governments and the press and public forever”, the judges said.
The Guardian picked up three other awards: for political journalist Andrew Sparrow, feature writer Amelia Gentleman and the paper’s “informative and innovative” 2010 World Cup supplement.
Sparrow was praised for his general election live blog, while Gentleman was applauded by judges for her “clear, lucid, accessible, insightful and sensitive” writing.
The Times, which received the highest number of nominations this year, also won the most awards: five.
These included two prizes for Caitlin Moran – critic and interviewer of the year. “Being a journalist is great isn’t it?” said Moran, who is celebrating her birthday today.
The Times’s David Robertson was named best business and finance journalist, Peter Brookes best cartoonist and Matthew Parris best columnist. The judges said Parris was “a must-read, classy… a Fleet street legend”.
The News of the World, despite losing out to the Guardian for newspaper of the year, left with four awards, including best supplement for Fabulous magazine and scoop of the year for its cricket corruption story, described as “the definition of a scoop for its jaw-dropping impact”.
The paper’s Stephen Moyes won showbiz reporter of the year for “stripping away publicity hype”. News of the World undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood was unanimously named news reporter of the year. He was described as “outstanding, with huge impact and brilliant execution”. The award was collected on his behalf by editor Colin Myler.
There were two awards for the Mail on Sunday – Matt Sandy won journalist of the year, described by judges as a “tenacious, hard-working story-getter”. Mark Pain was awarded sports photographer of the year.
The London Evening Standard also walked away with two prizes, including the prestigious Cudlipp award, for its Dispossessed campaign, which raised awareness of London’s forgotten poor. The panel said it was “campaigning journalism at its highest”.
The FT, Sunday Times, Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and Getty Images picked up one award each.
International journalist of the year went to Ibrahim Essa, the former editor of Egypt’s independent daily newspaper Al-Dustour that was closed by the government ahead of last autumn’s elections.
The Journalists’ Charity special award went to Canon David Meara, the rector at St Bride’s, the journalists’ church off Fleet Street.
This year’s awards were organised by the Society of Editors in association with the Newspaper Publishers Association and the Journalists’ Charity.
Society of Editors executive director and chairman of the judges Bob Satchwell said more than 650 entries were received. They were assessed by a team of 80 judges.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
