Private Eye Paul Foot Award shortlist for 2019 revealed

The shortlist for the Private Eye Paul Foot Award 2019 has been announced today, with six nominees from across the national and regional press.

The Daily Telegraph’s Claire Newell and her team are nominated for the paper’s coverage of sexual misconduct allegations against a businessman, later named as retail tycoon Sir Philip Green. He denies the claims.

Also nominated is Phil Coleman of the Carlisle News and Star, the only regional newspaper journalist to make this year’s shortlist, for his story on a fake NHS psychiatrist who deceived patients and services for decades.

The nominees are:

Ian Birrell, Mail on Sunday
Autistic youngsters locked up
Richard Brooks, Private Eye
Conservative Party Treasurer
Phil Coleman, Carlisle News and Star
Fake Shrink
Emily Dugan, BuzzFeed UK
Access to Justice
Tom Kelly, Daily Mail
Fleeced by fake taxmen
Claire Newell and Team, Daily Telegraph
MeToo Businessman Scandal

The award, set up in memory of investigative journalist Paul Foot who died in 2004, is for campaigning or investigative journalism. The winner will take home cash prize of £5,000.

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop said: “This is a brilliant list. The Judges deserve a pay rise, unlike er…”

Padraig Reidy, chairman of the judges, said: “With more entries than ever, selecting this year’s Paul Foot Awards shortlist was a serious challenge. The judges were delighted to reaffirm that whatever else is going on in the country, British journalism and journalists are in excellent health.”

The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, 18 June, at Bafta in London.

This year’s judging panel comprised political journalist Julia Langdon, The Guardian’s Simon Jenkins, the New Statesman’s Helen Lewis, Private Eye’s Francis Wheen, criminal defence solicitor Matt Foot, BBC Media editor Amol Rajan, and The Guardian’s Amelia Gentleman, who won the 2018 Paul Foot Award.