Hall of fame
British Journalism Awards Hall of Fame
2014
Journalist of the Year (sponsored by TSB) – Andrew Norfolk, The Times
Norfolk was named journalist of the year for his long-running investigation into child abuse. Judges said he “stood out as a magnificent example of what can be achieved by an ordinary reporter”.
A judges’ statement said: “It was a local story which exposed an appalling, unpalatable and almost unbelieveable scandal. Norfolk and The Times refused to give up until the child grooming gangs were exposed and the problem was addressed at a national level.
“It was an investigation which began with a front page story in January 2011 and culminated in the Jay report published in August this year which revealed council and law enforcement failures which contributed to 1,400 children being abused in Rotherham alone.
“It has been journalism which has made a difference, which gave a voice to people who no-one was listening to and which proved that sometimes journalists can step in when police, local and central government have all failed.”
Marie Colvin Award – Anthony Loyd, The Times
The Times’s Anthony Loyd was awarded the Marie Colvin prize in recognition of his 25-year career covering war zones.
Judges said: “Like Marie Colvin, Anthony Loyd has risked his life to report on the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Syria.
“Earlier this year he, along with photographer Jack Hill, were kidnapped whilst returning to Turkey from a reporting assignment in Syria. They were badly beaten, and Loyd himself was shot twice, but thankfully they were both freed.
“The risks Loyd and Hill run to report on the bombing of Aleppo are underlined by the fact that at least 70 journalists have been killed since 2011 covering the conflict in Syria. Others, like Briton John Cantlie, are still being held capitive.
“Anthony Loyd has spent is career going to places few others would be willing to visit in order shine a light on some of the darkest parts of our world.
“Loyd began his journalism career covering the conflict in Bosnia and has gone on to cover wars in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Chechnya, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine.”
“His journalism is marked by the quality and humanity of his writing, the depth of his insight and his ability to bring home globally significant scoops.
“In recent years these have included exclusive reports about Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria and Al Quaeda shopping for uranium in Libya.
“Since recovering from his gunshot injuries he has return to frontline journalism reporting most recently on the spread of ebola in Sierra Leone.”
New Journalist of the Year (sponsored by Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy) – Tom Warren, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Judges said: “Tom made great use of data and technology to unearth stories and details. He picked targets that no-one else was looking at to bring new information to light on matters of real public interest.
“He used excellent detective work to reveal the privileged bidders who profiteered from the Royal Mail flotation, forcing the Government to release the full list.”
Local Heroes – Carl Eve, The Herald in Plymouth
Carl Eve won the Local Heroes award for his investigation into police failures to prosecute members of a child abuse ring.
Judges said: “This was a particularly difficult investigation which involved persuading police contacts and victims of crime to speak out.
“He has great contacts and uses old fashioned face to face reporting to get behind the headlines. It is the sort of in-depth local reporting which is under threat in the current climate.”
Business Journalist of the Year (sponsored by Tata Consultancy Services) – Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake, Insight Team, Sunday Times
The Insight Team (pictured above with Ashish Babu from sponsor Tata Consultancy Services) was awarded the business prize for its investigation into RBS ‘killing off good firms for profit’.
The judges said: “This investigation ticked every box and did everything that we were looking for. It was in the public interest, revelatory and it’s had a huge impact.
“So many people would have had their livelihoods wiped out by the actions of RBS, a bank which is owned by the taxpayer.”
Politics Journalist of the Year – Times team
A team of journalists from The Times, comprising Greg Hurst, Francis Elliott, Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson, won the politics prize for stories headlined: ‘Angry Cameron rebukes rivals as Tory rift widens’, ‘Gove under fire for ‘Islamist school’s top Ofsted rating’ and ‘Cameron bumbles from one shambles to another with no sense of purpose’.
The judges said: “The Times’s team reporting on the political fallout of the row over Islamic faith schools shone a light on a serious policy dispute at the heart of government.
“It was one of the biggest political stories of the year and had a real impact on people in charge of government policy.
“Michael Gove was a big player in the Government up until this point and since then has been sidelined.”
Campaign of the Year – George Arbuthnott, The Sunday Times
George Arbuthnott won the campaign of the year for The Sunday Times for his work on slavery in modern-day Britain.
Judges said: “This was a campaign which showed the sort of campaigning investigative journalism pioneered by William Stead on the Pall Mall Gazette is alive and well on Fleet Street today.
“It exposed a little-reported scandal affecting some of most vulnerable people in the world and helped prompt the Government to table the Modern Slavery Bill.”
Sports Journalist of the Year (sponsored by the Hippodrome Casino) – Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake, Insight Team, The Sunday Times
The Insight Team won the sports prize for its investigation into FIFA.
The judges said: “This was the most significant sports story of the year and a huge embarrassment for Fifa in a World Cup Year just before the start of the tournament.
“They took a huge dossier of evidence and turned into a compellingly told story with no angle left unexplored.”
Innovation of the Year – The Guardian
The Guardian won the Innovation of the Year award for its NSA Files: Decoded project.
Judges said: “This feature set a new standard for interactive digital story-telling by a UK publication. It combines video, data and old-fashioned text-based journalism skills to explain the significance of Edward Snowden files on NSA surveillance in a more approachable and dynamic way than would ever be possible in print.
“The Guardian has continued to own this story by finding new ways to make it meaningful to people.”
Science and Technology Journalist of the Year (sponsored by Astellas) – Pallab Ghosh, BBC
The BBC’s Pallab Ghosh won the science and technology award for his reports exposing the failure of the Government’s badger culling programme.
The judges said: “This was one of those stories where if it wasn’t for people like Pallab the Governnent would have got away with doing what it wanted and ignoring the advice of its own scientists.
“There had been previous work where scientists had expressed concerns about the badger culls, lots of journalists were following this up. But Pallab was the only one to get hold of Defra’s own unpublished report showing that the culls were ineffective and inhumane.”
Photojournalist of the Year – David Rose, Telegraph
The judges said: “David’s pictures of the conflict in Ukraine were examples of news photography at its most dramatic. Brave and sympathetic, they were a potent demonstration of the way still print images have enduring power that video does not.”
Breaking News Award – Nick Craven and Ross Slater, The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday won the breaking news prize, for the best story of the year, for its story: ‘Crystal meth shame of bank chief’.
The judges highly commended the Telegraph for its Qatar corruption story, but felt the Paul Flowers story “was a great example of old fashioned tabloid journalism which held the powerful to account”.
They said: “At its heart was a genuine public interest story. The Co-op was the last bank you would think would be involved in corruption. How could somebody like Paul Flowers get appointed to such an important position?”
Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year – Patrick Cockburn, The Independent/i
Patrick Cockburn of The Independent won the foreign affairs prize for his coverage of the emergence of ISIS.
The judges said: “Patrick Cockburn spotted the emergence of Isis much earlier than anybody else and wrote about it with a depth of understanding that was just in a league of its own. Nobody else was writing that stuff at that time, and the judges wondered whether the Government should considering pensioning off the whole of MI6 and hiring Patrick Cockburn instead.
“The breadth of his knowledge and his ability make connections is phenomenal.”
Investigation of the Year – Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake, Insight Team, The Sunday Times
The Insight Team won the investigation prize, described as “one of the most prestigious and sought after of the night”, again for its FIFA coverage.
Judges said: “It was the story that almost gave Sepp Blatter a moment’s pause before being re-elected for another 97 years.
“The Sunday Times was not quite first into the field, when it came to exposing corruption around the Qatar World Cup bid, but it dominated the story as soon as it came into play.
“Its FIFA Files investigation had global impact. It reopened the whole issue of whether Qatar should the venue for the 2022 World Cup by exposing incontrovertible detailed evidence of widespread corruption.
“The initial Qatar Files 11-page investigation of June 2014 was tour de force of broadsheet investigative journalism: a superb exclusive story, brilliantly told exposing genuine corruption and injustice in the world’s most popular and financially lucrative sport.”
2013
New Journalist of the Year
Winner: Patrick Kingsley from The Guardian
What the judges said: “Patrick is a journalist who has been reporting from Egypt since January 2013 at no little risk to himself. He’s been beaten up and arrested as he exposed the toll unrest in that country has taken on unarmed civilians.
“He wrote the dissection of a massacre in a model way – it’s a great piece of reconstruction that leads to revelation.”
Patrick pictured with Javier Millan from Air France-KLM
Finalists:
Alex Ralph from The Times,
Fiona O’Cleirigh from Exaro News
Maeve McClenaghan – from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Sarah Morrison from The Independent
Simon Murphy from the Mail on Sunday
Business, finance and economics journalist of the year – sponsored by Astellas
Winner: Tom Bergin from Reuters
The judges said: “Most of the other journalists writing about the tax affairs of companies like Google and Starbucks are following in his footsteps. He practically wrote the questions for the Commons select committee.”
Tom Bergin pictured below with communications director of Astellas Pharma Europe, Mindy Dooa:
Highly commended:
Sarah O’Connor from the Financial Times
The judges praised her for “some good old-fashioned shoe leather reporting” which saw her investigate conditions at an Amazon warehouse in Rugely.
Finalists:
Laura Kuenssberg from ITV News
Stephen Grey from Reuters
John Gapper from the Financial Times
David Enrich from the Wall Street Journal Europe
Campaign of the Year
Winner: The Sunday Times for Safe Weekend Care – the campaign for a seven-day NHS
The judges said: “This campaign was well presented, planned and coordinated from beginning to end. It was backed up by great reporting and research and has succeeded in getting a national scandal addressed at the highest level.”
Finalists:
Andrew Norfolk from The Times for his ongoing work exposing the scandal of child sexual exploitation and grooming
The Sun’s Fight For April campaign calling for action to curb internet pornography
London Evening Standard for Ladder for London…encouraging London employers to take on more apprentices
Selina Maycock of the Scunthorpe Telegraph for a successful campaign to pay for the wedding of a terminally ill reader
The Sunday Times for Westminster for Sale – its series exposing how lobbyists pay for access to Parliament and the Government
Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year
Winner: Hala Jaber of The Sunday times
The judges said: “Hala Jaber has been there year after year, living in Damascus and covering the conflict from both sides and getting really strong stories.
“Her story about the Assad regime general was one of the few pieces of journalism that tried to get us into the mind of the government side of the conflict – and did so critically.”
Sunday Times editorial director Eleanor Mills accepting the Foreign Journalist of the Year prize on behalf of Hala Jaber from BJA judge Kevin Marsh:
Finalists:
Anthony Loyd of The Times
Katrina Manson from The Financial Times
Kim Sengupta of The Independent
Patrick Cockburn of The Independent
Richard Lloyd Parry – The Times
Photojournalist of the Year
Winner: Richard Pohle – The Times
The judges said that his photo of soldiers taking cover at Camp Bastion was the one stand-out shot of the competition this year – beautiful and atmospheric. They remarked that it was really tough photo to get with the equipment he would have had in that spot.
Finalists:
Jeremy Selwyn of the London Evening Standard
Mark Scott of The Sentinel
Oli Scarff from Getty Images
Suzanne Plunkett from Reuters
Politics Journalists of the Year
Winner: Joe Murphy of the London Evening Standard
The judges praised Murphy for fine writing and three genuine exclusives. The revelation that David Cameron was supporting gay marriage had huge repercussions and his exclusive account of the private Thatcher family funeral service was a fine piece of colour writing.
Joe Murphy with BJA judge professor Peter Cole:
Finalists:
Amelia Gentleman of The Guardian
Janan Ganesh of the Financial Times
Neil Elkes of the Birmingham Post and Mail
Steve Richards of The Independent
Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake of The Sunday Times Insight Team
Innovation of the Year
Winner: The Guardian for GuardianWitness
“One of judges said they had downloaded the app and they were using it every day. They felt it brought citizen journalism and user-generated content to a new level by – improving engagement, sourcing great content and doing so in a way that made money for the paper through sponsorship.”
The GuardianWitness team pictured with BJA judge Ian Reeves (right):
Highly commended:
The Sun for Sun+
The Independent for Voices In Danger
Finalists:
Lewis Whyld for his 360-degree interactive camera
The ooh aar Augmented reality platform as used in The Sentinel
The Brixton Bugle and Brixton Blog
Sports journalist of the year sponsored by the Hippodrome Casino
Winner: David Conn – of The Guardian
“All his stories were about some form of corruption in sport. He delves beyond the glitzy veneer of modern football to hold the game’s gilded elite to account.”
David Conn pictured (right) with awards sponsor Simon Thomas of the Hippodrome Casino:
Finalists:
Christian Sylt – freelance for City AM and The Independent
Ian Herbert – of The Independent
Luke Edwards of the Telegraph
Mark Ogden of The Telegraph
Sam Wallace of The Independent
Science and Technology Journalist of the Year sponsored by the Wellcome Trust
Winner: Robin McKie of The Observer
The judges said: “He goes for the biggest subjects and makes technical issues compelling with his approachable style of writing. His piece on a GM rice strain which could save millions from blindess was a particularly fine piece of science writing on a hugely important global issue.”
Robin McKie pictured (right) with director of the Wellcome Trust Prof Jeremy Farrar:
Finalists:
Pallab Ghosh – of the BBC
Leslie Hook of the Financial Times
Helen Thomson of the New Scientist
Gareth Iacubucci of the British Medical Journal
Andrew Gregory of the Daily Mirror
Breaking News Award
Winner: Channel 4 News and Dispatches for Plebgate
This was reporting which forced the Met Police to re-open its investigation into an alleged conspiracy to undermine chief Whip Andrew Mitchell. One police officer is to face trial and five are facing charges for gross misconduct.
The judges said they thought it was a great year for Dispatches and were also hugely impressed with its joint Guardian investigation into police spying on the family of Stephen Lawrence and its investigation into failings at the NHS 111 non-emergency call service.
They praised Dispatches for rigorous public interest journalism of the highest order.
Journalists from the Channel 4 Plebgate team with BJA judge Liz Gerard:
Finalists:
Exaro News – for the Murdoch tape
Tom Harper of The Independent – for Blue chip hacking
Catherine Deveney of The Observer for – top cardinal accused of inappropriate acts by priests
The Sunday Times insight team for – generals for hire
Anthony Lloyd of The Times for his exclusive report on the aftermath of a chemical weapons attack in Syria
Investigation of the year
Winner: Michael Gillard of The Sunday Times for his exposure of gangster David Hunt (the Untouchable)
The judges all agreed that Michael Gillard should win for an 11-year investigation which exposed career criminal and violent gangster David Hunt. The last journalist to investigate Mr Hunt received a head-butt for his troubles. Gillard stayed the course, memorably running rings around Hunt’s barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC in the High Court.
The judges felt that Gillard edged this prize because of the skill, determination and bravery it took to see this story through.
The Sunday Times succeeded where the collected forces of law enforcement in this country had failed – defeating Hunt in a court of law and obtaining a measure of justice for his victims by public exposing him for the first time.
Highly commended:
The Guardian – For the Snowden Files
Andrew Norfolk of The Times for his work on the child sex grooming scandal
The judges were hugely impressed by the global ramifications of The Guardian’s Snowden files revelations and by Andrew Norfolk’s ongoing dogged investigation into sex grooming. Both are highly commended.
Finalists:
Mark Daily and Murdoch Rodgers of BBC Scotland for Sins of our Fathers
Channel 4 News and Dispatches for Plebgate
Jeanette Oldham of the Birmingham Mail for her investigation into a cancer surgeon with unacceptably high death rates
The Marie Colvin award – sponsored by Syria Relief for the journalist who the judges felt had done the most to raise the reputation of our craft and inspire other journalists.
Former Times foreign editor Richard Beeston (who died of cancer in May of this year aged 50).
Dr Ayman Jundi presenting the Marie Colvin Award to Ben MacIntyre of the The Times and Natasha Beeston:
One of the great foreign editors of The Times – Richard Beeston was a hugely liked and respected figure throughout Fleet Street.
An indefatigable foreign correspondent he covered conflicts in Lebanon, Iraq and Chechnya for The Times.
He exposed Saddam Hussein’s gassing of Kurdish civilians at Hallabja in 1988, reported on atrocities by Serb forces in the Bosnian War of the early 1990s and after 2011 he shone a light on the barberous campaign of general Assad in Syria against his own population.
When one of the judges suggested Richard’s name for the Marie Colvin prize there was immediate and enthusiastic agreement from all the others.
The BJA judges cover a broad cross-section of our diverse industry but they had all been deeply touched by Richard’s contribution to journalism.
As Oliver Kamm wrote in The Times: “Richard Beeston saw his responsibility as finding things out and giving as objective an account as he could manage of the horrors of the conflicts he covered. Objectivity doesn’t mean balance: it means telling the truth about what you discover.”
Journalist of the year, sponsored by Santander
Michael Gillard – Freelance/The Sunday Times
Michael Gillard could not attent the awards and cannot attend public events in London for security reasons. The awarded was accepted on his behalf by his friend the journalist Laurie Flynn and presented by Santander director of communications Jennifer Scardino:
2012
Investigation of the year
(See our showcase of all the award-winning work for this category here)
Winner: Alexi Mostrous and Fay Schlesinger (The Times) – Tax avoidance investigation
Finalists:
- Andrew Norfolk (The Times) – Child grooming
- Chris Woods (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) – Covert War on Terror
- Channel 4 News – Suspended doctors still working
- Jon Austin (Basildon Echo) – Dale Farm travellers’ site coverage
- Nina Lakhani and Andrew Buncombe (The Independent)- How Western pharmaceutical companies use guinea pigs in India
- Paul Lewis and Rob Evans (Guardian News and Media) – Police infiltration of the protest movement
- Leigh Marles (The Wirral Globe) – Justice for Martin and for taxpayers
- Alexi Mostrous and Fay Schesinger (The Times) – Tax avoidance revelations.
- Rupert Neate (Guardian News and Media) – Liam Fox quits, and coverage of the Fox-Werrity scandal)
- Gareth Iacobucci (Pulse Magazine) – Clinical commissioning group calls on PM to drop the Health Bill
- The Guardian – Assad emails exposed
- Jon Ungoed-Thomas (The Sunday Times) – Google grabs secrets of our private lives
- Sunday Times Insight Team – Cash for Cameron: cosy club buys the PM’s ear
- Stuart Ramsay (Sky News) – Reports from the frontline of the Syrian civil war
- Andy Grice (The Independent)
- Jane Merrick (The Independent on Sunday)
- Patrick Wintour (Guardian News and Media)
- Rachel Sylvester (The Times)
- Simon Walters (Mail on Sunday)
New journalist of the year
(See our showcase of all the award-winning work for this category here)
Winner: Emma Slater (The BBC/Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
Finalists:
- Charlie Cooper (The Independent)
- Halina Watts (The People)
- Kevin Rawlinson (The Independent)
- Niall McCracken (The Detail)
- Sarah Morrison (The Independent on Sunday)
- Dan Kitwood (Getty Images)
- Leo Maguire (Freelance for The Sunday Times magazine)
Oli Scarff (Getty Images)
- Peter Macdiarmid (Getty Images)
- Robin Hammond/Panos Pictures ( The Sunday Times magazine)
- The Times – Cities Fit for Cycling Project
- Channel 4 News – No Go Britain (multimedia campaign highlighting the problems faced by disabled transport users)
- John Dale – 24 Hours in Journalism book and investigative project
- Guardian News and Media – Reading the Riots project
- The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
- Channel 4 Dispatches App
- John Sinnott (CNN/Sports Illustrated/The Blizzard)
- Kevin Eason (The Times)
- Mark Daly (BBC Scotland)
- Nick Harris (Mail on Sunday)
- Paul Kelso (The Daily Telegraph)
- Catherine Lea (Hull Daily Mail)
- Chris Giles (Financial Times)
- Deirdre Hipwell (The Times)
- Larry Elliott (Guardian News and Media)
- Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith (Marketing/Brand Republic)
- Nick Mathiason (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
- Fiona Harvey (Guardian News and Media)
- James Murray (Business Green)
- Pallab Ghosh (BBC)
- Suzanne Goldenberg (Guardian News and Media)
- Warren Manger (The Coventry Telegraph)
British Journalism Awards Journalist of the Year for 2012 was David Walsh of the Sunday Times.
A special award was given to the late Marie Colvin and accepted on her behalf by Sunday Times foreign editor Sean Ryan and photographer Paul Conroy.
The 2015 British Journalism Awards in association with Audi are sponsored by:
The 2015 British Journalism Awards are supported by:
