December 2, 2014updated 12 May 2016 9:12am

Andrew Norfolk named journalist of the year as Times and Sunday Times claim seven British Journalism Awards

Andrew Norfolk (pictured – JB Young) has been named journalist of the year at the 2014 British Journalism Awards as his newspaper, The Times, shared seven category wins with The Sunday Times.

The Sunday Times’s Insight Team – comprising Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake – won three categories at tonight’s ceremony at Stationers’ Hall, including two for its FIFA investigation.

The team also won the business journalist of the year award for its RBS ‘kills off good firms for profit’ investigation.

And The Sunday Times won campaign of the year for George Arbuthnott’s work on modern-day slavery in the UK.

Sister title The Times was the second biggest winner on the night, claiming three prizes – including Norfolk’s journalist of the year prize and the Marie Colvin award for raising the reputation of journalism and providing inspiration for fellow reporters.

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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.”

Full list of finalists

(Winner in bold)

Breaking News Award (for the best story of the year)

‘Crystal meth shame of bank chief’, The Mail on Sunday (Nick Craven and Ross Slater)

‘Boxing legend Frank: I’m now a woman’, Sunday Mirror (Matthew Drake)

‘Cabinet at war over extremists in schools’, The Times (Greg Hurst, Francis Elliott, Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson)

‘British jihadists join fight with al-Qaeda in Iraq', The Sunday Times (Dipesh Gadher)

‘The proof of Syria’s chemical attacks’, The Telegraph (Ruth Sherlock)

‘World Cup chief and family paid millions by Qatari firm’, The Telegraph (Claire Newell, Holly Watt, Claire Duffin and Ben Bryant

Business Journalist of the Year – sponsored by T ata Consultancy Services

Ann King – The Sentinel, ‘My livelihood’s been stolen by banking giant’, ‘600 new jobs on the scrapheap’.

Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake – The Sunday Times, RBS ‘kills off good firms for profit’

Jim Armitage – The Independent/i/London Evening Standard, ‘Asian tycoon’s empire takes up to £630m from blackout energy firm’, ‘The Tory donor whose firm is one of Britain’s biggest tax avoiders’ and ‘Revealed: how private firms make quick killing from PFI’.

Chris Giles – The Financial Times, ‘China to overtake US economy this year’, ‘Flawed data on rich weaken Piketty’s main argument’.

Jeff Prestridge – The Mail on Sunday, ‘How bosses at copycat tax website sang ‘We’re In The Money’ as they racked up £7m in just four months’, ‘Stop the greedy firms that prey on flat owners’ and ‘Thousands face tax bombshell over lifetime pension plans’.

Simon Goodley – The Guardian, ‘Revealed: Tesco hoarding land that could build 15,000 homes’, ‘Royal Bank of Scotland's 'bad bank' to offload 1,300 homes’ and ‘How to rig Forex’.

Campaign of the Year

Child sex abuse inquiry – Exaro, Frontline London

David Cohen, The Evening Standard

Female Genital Mutilation – The Guardian

Modern day slavery in Britain – George Arbuthnott, The Sunday Times

Claire’s Law – Michelle Livesey, Key 103 Radio in Manchester,

Bring City Home – Simon Gilbert, Coventry Telegraph

Digital innovation

Contributoria, a marketplace for independent journalists which provides a new way to fund public interest journalism.

NSA files: Decoded – The Guardian. Explanatory multimedia feature weaving together the issues raised by The Guardian’s reporting on NSA surveillance activities.

Peter Jukes live tweeting the Hacking Trial. Using Indiegogo to crowdfund daily reporting via Twitter of the entire hacking trial – also resulting in a website and book.

Trinity Mirror Data Unit. Mapping the dead of World War One across the UK, Real Schools Guide a quick search guide to all GP surgeries.

Historical event live blogs – Richard Preston, The Telegraph. Hour by hour live blogs reliving the events of D-Day and the outbreak of World War One

100 Years, 100 legacies – The Wall Street Journal Europe. Advent calendar-style interactive feature telling the story of “the lasting impact of World War One”.

Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year

Patrick Cockburn – The Independent/i, ‘Al-Qa’ida, the second act: Why the global ‘war on terror. Went wrong’, ‘Is Saudi Arabia regretting its support for terrorism?’ and ‘The Sunni revolt in Syria has given al-Qa’oda more power in Iraq’.

Anthony Loyd – The Times, ‘Al-Qaeda shopping for Gaddafi’s uranium and anti-aircraft missiles’, ‘Face to face with the new enemy in Syria’ and ‘Iraq dispatches dozens a week in record year for executions

Borzou Daragahi – Financial Times, ‘Libya’s badlands’, ‘Egypt’s black holes’ and ‘Three nations, one conflict’

Christina Lamb – The Sunday Times, ‘My year with Malala’, Hamid Karzai interview and ‘Find our girls and save our dreams’.

Gethin Chamberlain – The Observer, ‘V&A’s false eyelashes exhibit set to spark debate on fashion ethics’, ‘Orangutans vanish from their forest home as high street giants slake our thirst for palm oil’ and ‘The tea pickers sold into slavery’.

Peter Spiegel – Financial Times, ‘It was the point where the eurozone could have imploded’ – investigative series looking at how EU’s leader’s saved the euro.

Martin Chulov – The Guardian, ‘Arrest that exposed wealth and power of Iraq jihadists’, ‘Inside Syria: ancient ways to kill amid the barbarity of a civil war’ and ‘Manhunt for a British murderer with hostages’ fate in his hands’.

Richard Lloyd Parry – The Times, Reports from aftermath of typhoon Haiyan in Philippines: ‘City of despair and decay’, ‘One man’s fearful journey to find out if his family survived’ and ‘Typhoon victims allowed to loot simply to stay alive’.

Investigation of the Year

‘Comrade Capitalism: How Russia does business in the Putin era’, Reuters – Stephen Grey, Jason Bush, Roman Anin, Douglas Busvine, Elizabeth Piper, Maria Tsvetkova and Himansh Ojha

Co-op Bank chairman Rev Paul Flowers’ secret drug-taking, The Mail on Sunday – Nick Craven and Ross Slater

‘The Met Corruption Files’, Daily Mail – Stephen Wright and Richard Pendlebury

‘Exposing hospital heartache’, Dispatches, Channel 4 (ITN Productions)/ OpenWorld News – Amanda Holden

‘How to fix a football match’, Dispatches, Channel 4 (VERA)/The Telegraph – Morland Sanders, Claire Newell and Holly Watt

‘Qatar’s World Cup ‘slaves’, The Guardian – Pete Pattisson, Owen Gibson and Rob Booth

‘The many lives of Basildon’s own Walter Mitty’, The Echo (Basildon) – Jon Austin

‘Fifa files’, The Sunday Times – Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake

Local Heroes Award

Jeanette Oldham – Birmingam Mail, Trojan horse: The files – special investigation

Emma Burrows – ITV News Central, Investigation into Female Genital Mutilation

Carl Eve – The Herald (Plymouth), ‘Find them’ – report into members of a child abuse ring, ‘Police are ‘undermining’ safeguarding children initiative’ and 'We must find the other child abusers still at large’.

Gareth Davies – The Croydon Advertiser, ‘Honey trap conwoman tricked me out of £35k’, ‘Time for Justice’ (report on abuse at children’s home) and ‘Too young to party, far too young to die’.

Neil Elkes – Birmingham Mail, ‘Sneaky finers! New bus lane signs secretly put up days before watchdog ruling’, ‘Cameras snare 60,000 drivers in just 11 weeks’ and ‘Council chief: We should have listened to the Mail’.

Bob Westerdale – The Star (Sheffield), Heroes of Hillsborough

New Journalist of the Year – sponsored by Stationers' Crown Woods Academy

Athar Ahmad – BBC Radio Asian Network , Caliphate: Searching for the Islamic state

Emma Burrows – ITV News Central, Special reports on Female Genital Mutilation

Katie Gibbons – The Times, ‘Glasgow is s*** and Olympics were better, says unhappy Bolt’, 'Patients ‘ignored’ in cancer inquiry' and ‘Surge in levels of anorexia among girls at independent schools’

Simon Murphy – The Mail on Sunday, ‘Schoolboy to jihadist’, ‘eBay’s sick trade in Holocaust memorabilia’ and MPs’ cycling and spectacle expenses claims.

Tom Warren – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, ‘One short-term lender for every seven banks on high street’, ‘Unmasked: the city institutions given privileged status in the controversial Royal Mail flotation', 'United & Cecil Club funnels cash to Conservative must-win marginals'.

Jim Waterson – Buzzfeed, ‘Walkie Scorcher’, Student Loans fake debt collection agency and Ed Miliband Interview

Politics Journalist of the Year

Team entry: Melanie Newman, Nick Mathiason and Tom Warren – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, ‘Billionaires and lobbyists at lavish part with David Cameron’, ‘Russian banker pays £160k to play tennis with David Cameron and Boris Johnson’ and ‘Questions over Tory donation linked to Russian banker’.

David Hencke, Exaro, ‘MPs call on Theresa May to set up inquiry into child abuse’, ‘Every MP asked to back inquiry into organised child sex abuse’ and ‘Baroness Butler Sloss faces another hitch in heading CSA inquiry’

Team entry: Greg Hurst, Francis Elliott, Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson – The Times, ‘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’.

Daniel Boffey, The Observer, ‘Bulgaria issues fierce rebuke to Cameron over migrants’, ‘Death risks mount on building sites’ and ‘Gove’s bid to limit fallout from failing free schools’.

Rowena Mason, The Guardian, ‘HMRC to sell taxpayer’s data’, ‘Labour picks Westminster insiders for key seats’ and ‘Jobseekers told they must take zero-hours jobs’.

Simon Walters – Mail on Sunday, ‘Leaked emails. Reveal what Ed Miliband really thinks of Balls’, ‘Murdoch wife: My crush on Blair’ and ‘You cleared me of rape…now pay back my £130k legal bill’.

Photojournalist of the Year

David Rose – The Telegraph

Stuart Franklin – The Sunday Times

Jack Hill – The Times

Richard Pohle – The Times

Will Wintercross – The Telegraph

Andrew Tester – The Sunday Times

Science and Technology Journalist of the Year – sponsored by Astellas

Chris Smyth – The Times, ‘NHS urged to claw back huge payoffs for managers’, £1m payoff, then NHS brings back managers’ and ‘Alarm over shortage of nurses on NHS wards’.

Pilita Clark – Financial Times, Investigation into the global water crisis.

Steve Connor – The Independent/i, ‘The lost girls’ (on illegal abortions), ‘The next genetic revolution’ and ‘One girl, three parents?’.

Ian Sample – The Guardian, ‘Leading doctors raise alarm over delays to medical trials’, ‘US scientists boycott Nasa conference over China ban’ and ‘Handle with care ‘.

Kate Kelland – Reuters, ‘Saudi Arabia takes heat for spread of MERS virus’, ‘In virus hunt, Saudi Arabia suspects African camel imports’ and ‘Patients recruited for vital studies on Saudi MERS virus’.

Pallab Ghosh – BBC, ‘Badger trials were ineffective and failed humanness test’ and ‘Ministers willfully ignoring scientific advice’.

Sports Journalist of the Year – sponsored by Hippodrome Casino

Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake – The Sunday Times, Plot to buy the World Cup, Fifa files

David Conn – The Guardian, ‘How a council bent over backwards to prevent Tottenham taking flight’, ‘The takeover that was a riddle wrapped in a mystery’ and ‘Yeung had other convictions but was still deemed ‘fit and proper’.

Simon Gilbert – Coventry Telegraph, Reports on the Coventry City/Ricoh Arena saga

Nick Hoult – The Telegraph, ‘Cricket’s new match-fixing scandal’

Matt Lawton – Daily Mail, ‘Mackay mired in text scandal’, David Moyes interview and 'Lance Armstrong faces his accuser'.

Sam Peters – The Mail on Sunday, Concussion campaign and reports.

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’.

Judges for 2014 British Journalism Awards

The British Journalism Awards judges are chosen for there huge experience and independence.

Robin Lustig. Left the BBC after 23 years presenting The World Tonight on Radio 4. He has previously worked for Reuters and as home affairs editor of The Observer

Kim Fletcher, formerly editorial director of the Telegraph Group, deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph and editor of the Independent on Sunday. He is chairman of the National Council for the Training of Journalists and editor of the British Journalism Review

Steve Dyson, former editor of the Evening Gazette in Teesside and the Birmingham Mail. Media consultant and special correspondent for BBC WM Radio

Peter Preston, editor of The Guardian from 1975 to 1995

John Dale, fomerly of The Observer, Daily Mail and editor of Take a Break for 20 years. Ten-time BSME Awards winner

Liz Gerard, former night editor of The Times with 40 years experience in journalism – author of the SubScribe blog

Fiona Fox, chief executive of the Science Media Centre

Alan Geere, former editor of titles including The Tribune (USA), the Trinidad Express and the Northcliffe Media South East series

Moira Sleight, managing editor of the Methodist Recorder

John Mair, former BBC producer and editor of 10 books on journalism

David Banks, former editor of the Daily Mirror, New York Daily News, Sydney Daily Telegraph

Robin Morgan, former Sunday Times Magazine editor

Peter Cole, emeritus professor of journalism at Sheffield University, former deputy editor of The Guardian and founder editor of the Sunday Correspondent

Ian Reeves, former editor of Press Gazette now director of learning at the University of Kent journalism department

Paul Charman, principle lecturer in journalism at the London College of Communications

Professor Jane Singer, of City University in London

Dominic Ponsford, editor of Press Gazette

John Sweeney, long serving investigative journalist and former reporter for Panorama
Neil Fowler – former editor of Which magazine, The Journal, Western Mail, Toronto Sun and Lincolnshire Echo