City University has presented Guardian data journalist Simon Rogers with its inaugural XCity Award.
The institution said the prize was established to recognise a former student who had made an outstanding contribution to journalism in the past year.
City said Rogers, who edits the Datablog and Datastore features, was a crucial figure in The Guardian’s decision to crowdsource data on MPs’ expenses in 2009 and a key part of its Wikileaks Afghan War Logs coverage.
He was given the award, City said, for ‘pioneering work in data journalism at the Guardian”.
Rogers, who completed a Newspaper Diploma at City in 1991, wins £500.
He said: ‘This award provides important industry recognition of the impact that data journalism is having on the journalism profession and news reporting.
‘Over the past year, with organisations like Wikileaks driving data related media stories, we have seen data journalism really gain momentum. Data journalism serves an important role in serving the public interest and I hope this will continue.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
