Buerk: to present BPA 2004
For the first time in the history of the British Press Awards, subscribers to Press Gazette will have a say in which title becomes newspaper of the year.
An e-mail will go out at the end of this week to all subscribers who have registered their details on the Press Gazette website, asking them which national newspaper merits the award for its work in 2003.
Their responses will be passed to the panel of independent judges, chaired by Donald Trelford, to use as part of their deliberations later this month.
This year’s awards ceremony on 16 March will be hosted by Michael Buerk, the multiple award-winning journalist and presenter whose BBC career spans more than 30 years.
He began his career on the Western Mail & Echo and worked on the Daily Mail before making the move into television, where he spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent reporting from 50 countries – including, perhaps most memorably, Ethiopia, where his reports led to Bob Geldof setting up Live Aid.
Buerk has been honoured by, among many others, the Royal Television Society, Bafta, the UN and the Catholic Church.
He has occasionally crossed swords with his employer, recently criticising the “pressure to deliver” on today’s news reporters.
Guests at this year’s British Press Awards will also be treated to free Guinness, thanks to Diageo providing two special “Eve of St Patrick’s Day” bars at the Hilton Hotel.
For table sales and more information, contact Andrea Hayes on 020 8565 3056 or andreah@qpp.co.uk.
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