Pippa Crerar was one of the major winners of the night at the British Journalism Awards 2022, taking home the Journalist of the Year, Politics Journalism and Women in Journalism’s Woman of the Year prizes.
Crerar was recognised for her role in breaking the news of Downing Street parties at Christmas 2020 while the rest of the UK was under Covid-19 lockdown rules, as well as her Number 10 “wine time Fridays” and Boris Johnson’s Chequers wedding party scoops. (Read our interview with Crerar here.)
Meanwhile The Telegraph’s then-political correspondent Tony Diver won Scoop of the Year for his part in the Partygate scandal, revealing Number 10 staff held two boozy parties the night before Prince Philip’s socially-distanced funeral.
Hundreds of journalists working for UK media who risked their lives by travelling to the warzone of Ukraine this year were recognised with the British Journalism Awards’ third Public Service Award.
Related
The special recognition award was accepted on every journalists’ behalf by Olga Malchevska, the BBC News Ukraine presenter who was live on-air in February when she first saw images of her childhood home in Kyiv after it had been destroyed by a bomb. (See Malchevska’s speech here.)
Sky News was named News Provider of the Year, largely for its “brave” reporting from Ukraine as well as leading the way on other stories like the cost of living crisis, Partygate and climate.
Other winners for their work in Ukraine include The Guardian’s photojournalist Ed Ram, Mani Benchelah and Patrick Tombola who made the Ukraine: Life Under Attack film for Channel 4 Dispatches, and Financial Times correspondent and former freelance Antonia Cundy who took home the Marie Colvin Award, given each year to outstanding up-and-coming journalists of the calibre of the late Sunday Times foreign correspondent.
Hi-res photos of the awards night are available to download via this link.
Scroll down for the full list of British Journalism Awards 2022 winners and highly commended finalists
The winners were fairly evenly spread across the UK media, with the BBC, Financial Times, Guardian and Daily Mail all netting three awards each. The Independent, Sunday Times, Mirror and Channel 4 Dispatches all went home with two.
As well as the Photojournalism award, Guardian journalists won the Social Affairs, Diversity and Inclusion Journalism award jointly with the BBC for their investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against DJ Tim Westwood and, jointly with BBC Panorama, the Technology Journalism award for their Uber Files investigation. BBC News and Panorama also won the Business, Finance and Economics Journalism prize for their work on Russian oligarchs.
On top of Cundy’s recognition, FT journalists won the Specialist Journalism prize for John Burn-Murdoch’s data journalism and Arts and Entertainment for Neil Munshi.
Susie Coen won Investigation of the Year for her Daily Mail investigation into the dangers of smart motorways that involved her going undercover for six weeks – the longest anyone at the paper has gone undercover – at National Highways, eventually leading to a U-turn on the policy. Daily Mail journalists also took home the Features Journalism and Sports Journalism prizes.
The Independent’s Simon Calder won the Travel Journalism prize for his work in a year that included P&O sacking 800 members of staff, while the title’s Rebecca Thomas took home the Health Journalism award for critical stories on the state of the NHS and, in part, how it has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Open Democracy won Campaign of the Year for its work on transparency in public life and freedom of information, leading to an inquiry into FOI obfuscation in the Government and several policy changes. The judges said this campaign “matters hugely for British journalism”.
The winners of all 30 awards, revealed in a ceremony at London’s Hilton Park Lane, were chosen from a record 840 entries by a panel of 75 independent judges who were looking for work that was “revelatory, which makes a difference and which demonstrates journalistic skill and rigour”.
Press Gazette editor-in-chief and chairman of the judges Dominic Ponsford said the winners provide plenty of “proof that journalism matters, that it does make a difference”.
“It has been a year when hundreds of colleagues have placed themselves in the firing line of Vladimir Putin’s missiles to report on the plight of the people of Ukraine,” he added. “And in which publications and broadcaster of every political persuasion and none held the executive branch of UK Government to account so effectively that a prime minister was forced to resign.”
The awards were supported by headline sponsor Starling Bank along with Amazon, Camelot, Cardiff University, Google News Initiative, Newsworks, Octopus Energy and Wiggin, as well as partners the Journalists’ Charity and Women in Journalism.
British Journalism Awards 2022 winners
Social Affairs, Diversity & Inclusion Journalism
WINNER: Chi Chi Izundu, Ruth Evans, Alexandra Topping and Aamna Mohdin – BBC News and The Guardian
The judges said: “This was brave journalism which involved journalists shining a light on their own employer. It involved painstaking work which gave a voice to victims.”
Features Journalism
WINNER: David Jones – Daily Mail
- No words of regret or remorse. From her en-suite prison cell with woodland view, baby Star’s sadistic murderer tells the Mail: ‘I’m going to appeal’
- The death of my beloved childhood chippy – and the startling reason your fish supper will soon cost £10
- How did a woman lie dead behind this door for without a single person noticing?
The judges said Jones’ work was “wonderfully evocative” and that he “makes powerful points while writing with humour”.
Highly commended: Lizzie Parry – The Sun
- As my magical Debs was dying there was only one thing I needed to say, reveals Dame Deborah James’ husband Sebastien
- I’m being a b*tch because I’m so angry I’m dying – I don’t want friends to see me this way, says Dame Deborah James
- My friend Deborah James was so beautiful, bonkers and bloody-minded I never actually believed this day would come
Highly commended: Sirin Kale – The Guardian
- 11 years, 10 arrests, at least 62 women: how did Britain’s worst cyberstalker evade justice for so long?
- ‘I wanted my children to grow up here’: how Airbnb is ruining local communities in north Wales
- The life and tragic death of John Eyers – a fitness fanatic who refused the vaccine
Local Journalism
WINNER: Jeannette Oldham – BirminghamLive
- Assets frozen, boss banned, accountant bankrupt as ‘fraud’ firm collapses owing taxman £17m
- Homeless Birmingham boss admitted ‘paying for sex with child’ but keeps charity trustee job
- Mystery Digbeth killer may have struck months before at Edgbaston ‘brothel’
The judges said: “This was real foot-in-the door journalism, involving detailed research and then fearless confrontations to shine a light into dark corners of a local community.”
Health and Life Sciences Journalism
WINNER: Rebecca Thomas – The Independent
- Hidden A&E figures revealed as thousands a day forced to wait 12 hours or more
- Can the NHS live with Covid?
- Revealed: Over 600 babies born premature and needing critical care to mothers hospitalised by Covid-19
The judges said: “This was proper revelatory journalism, praised by health professionals and benefiting the public by revealing the true extent of the crisis in hospital A&E departments back in April this year long before it was widely known.”
Crime and Legal Affairs Journalism
WINNER: Linly Lin, Stefania Spezzati and Elisa Martinuzzi – Bloomberg News
- Millions in U.K. Covid Loans Went to Inactive or Brand-New Firms
- U.K. Financier’s Firm Aided by Covid Loans Is Ensnared in Probe
The judges said: “This was a blockbuster investigation into massive taxpayer funded fraud which the Government tried to keep secret.”
Comment Journalism
WINNER: Camilla Long – The Sunday Times
- No one drooled over oligarchs like British toffs — I know, because I helped them
- Wagatha Christie trial is a Greek tragedy in fake tan . . . with more swearing
- Poor Bond, a needy old dad trapped in a three-hour ad for phones and Range Rovers
The judges said Long was “one of the must-read writers of the week as her work is “honest, funny and original”.
Specialist Journalism
WINNER: John Burn-Murdoch – Financial Times
- UK healthcare is already being privatised, but not in the way you think
- Chronic illness makes UK workforce the sickest in developed world
- The NHS is being squeezed in a vice
The judges said Burn-Murdoch’s stories “show how you can use to data to provide fresh insight and news lines,” describing him as a “great communicator who creates powerful narratives”.
Foreign Affairs Journalism
WINNER: Mani Benchelah and Patrick Tombola – Channel 4 Dispatches and Basement Films
The judges said: “These journalists told the story of the battle of Kharkiv better than anyone else. The effectively brought across the fear, anger and grief by telling the story through the eyes of civilians and emergency workers.”
Highly commended: Christina Lamb – The Sunday Times
- The village in Ukraine where Russians looted, murdered and raped
- Is it time to bring home Britain’s Isis brides and their children?
- In my 35 years as a reporter, I have never seen anything of Afghanistan’s magnitude
Highly commended: Eamonn Matthews, Ramita Navai and Karim Shah – ITV Exposure and Quicksilver Media
Highly commended: Tanya Stephan, Rachel Cumella, Brian Woods, Anne Morrison, Ella Newton, Paddy Garrick and Tom Giles – ITV and True Vision/Nevision
Technology Journalism – sponsored by Amazon
WINNER: Harry Davies, Simon Goodley, Felicity Lawrence, Lisa O’Carroll, Rob Davies, Paul Lewis, John Collingridge, Johana Bhuiyan, Rowena Mason, Dan Milmo, James Oliver, Rory Tinman, Nassos Stylianou, Will Dahlgreen, Aisling Gallagher, Becky Dale, Richard Bilton, Andy Head, and Karen Wightman – The Guardian and BBC Panorama
- Uber broke laws, duped police and secretly lobbied governments, leak reveals
- The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie
- Uber Files: Massive leak reveals how top politicians secretly helped Uber
The judges said: “This was a great scoop which exposed corporate misbehaviour at one of the world’s biggest technology companies.”
Built Environment Journalism
WINNER: Martina Lees – The Sunday Times
- Corner-cutting, cover-ups and a disregard for human life: why Grenfell really happened
- Cladding crisis: ten builders have made more money since Grenfell than their companies pledged for safety works
- No one will pay to fix our unsafe flats — and now we could lose our homes
The judges praised Lees for using the “full force” of The Sunday Times “to crank up the pressure on those responsible for the biggest public housing scandal in 50 years”.
Highly commended: Jack Simpson – Inside Housing
- How Birmingham became the centre of a supported housing controversy
- The signature that never was: how an east London block became embroiled in an EWS saga
- The scandal within the scandal: how Help to Buy is sucking funds from cladding victims
Personal Finance Journalism
WINNER: Richard Butchins, Victoria Noble, David Henshaw, Melanie Quigley, John Pring and Ian Lloyd – Channel 4 Dispatches and Hardcash Productions:
The judges said: “This investigation dealt well with a sensitive issue and used robust information and a wide range of sources to bring the story to life.”
Highly commended: Tom Kelly, Miles Dilworth and Victoria Bischoff – Daily Mail
- Britain is £3bn fraud capital of the world
- Police ‘must triple fraud squad size’
- Cashing in on the big squeeze
Energy & Environment Journalism – sponsored by Octopus Energy
WINNER: Simon Evans – Carbon Brief
- Analysis: Cutting the ‘green crap’ has added £2.5bn to UK energy bills
- Analysis: Record-low price for UK offshore wind is nine times cheaper than gas
- Analysis: Why UK energy bills are soaring to record highs – and how to cut them
The judges said: “This journalist is extraordinarily productive and at times has provided a one-person corrective to the prevailing political discourse on energy and the have been proved right.”
Highly commended: Cam Simpson, Akshat Rathi and Saijel Kishan – Bloomberg News
- The ESG Mirage
- ESG Ratings Are Not What They Seem
- How BlackRock Made ESG the Hottest Ticket on Wall Street
Arts and Entertainment Journalism
WINNER: Neil Munshi – Financial Times:
The judges said: “You just wouldn’t read this anywhere else. A great story with big foreign policy implications.”
New Journalist of the Year – sponsored by Cardiff University
WINNER: Noa Hoffman – The Sun
- Tory whip Chris Pincher RESIGNS after ‘groping 2 men’ & claims he ‘drank too much’ – but will remain as an MP
- I woke up in Chris Pincher’s flat to find him on top of me after a night of boozing, alleged victim claims
- Energy giants to hand shareholders £10bn – equivalent of £363 per UK household – as cost of living crisis spirals
The judges praised Hoffman for helping to “bring down a prime minister four days into their job. A public interest scoop which was skilfully landed and swiftly stood up”.
Highly commended: Antonia Cundy – The i/Sunday Times/Guardian
- Mariupol survivors describe how ‘our city is being erased’ by Putin after escape from Ukraine
- ‘Corpse lords’ search for Russian bodies with which to buy back Ukraine’s dead
- ‘He should have lived’: shortages are proving fatal in Lviv’s hospitals
Sports Journalism
WINNER: Ian Herbert – Daily Mail
- We demand to know why they died: Scandal of the young Qatar World Cup workers who never came home
- Qatar could ‘rent’ noisy fans to get behind hosts, 4,000 supporters will stay in ‘floating hotels’ while immigrant construction workers must leave… Sportsmail reveals what the 2022 World Cup will really be like
- The failings of the football factories
The judges said: “This was high class journalism investing time and money effectively shine a light on some of the dark secrets behind the world of sport.”
Campaign of the Year – sponsored by Newsworks
WINNER: Transparency in British public life – openDemocracy
The judges said: “This campaign matters hugely for British journalism and encourages other journalists to fight freedom of information battles.”
Highly commended: A scandal worse than thalidomide – The Sunday Times
Photojournalism
WINNER: Ed Ram – The Guardian
The judges felt that amid some outstanding entries from Ukraine, Ram “stood out for the compassion and artistry which he brought to covering the impact of war”.
Interviewer of the Year
WINNER: Alice Thomson – The Times
- Tony Blair: ‘Voters don’t want a situation where women can’t talk about being women’
- Deborah James: ‘I want to die listening to my family, I want to hear the normal buzz of life as I go’
- Bill Gates: ‘I’m grieving the same way Melinda is’
The judges said Thomson “secures incredible access and lets subjects speak in their own voice whilst also asking the tough questions and obtaining good news lines”.
Highly commended: Josh Glancy – The Sunday Times
- Is Rachel Reeves Labour’s secret weapon?
- BrewDog’s James Watt on being accused of bullying and harassment
- Richard Dawkins: ‘Race is a spectrum. Sex is pretty damn binary’
Highly commended: Stephen Wright – Daily Mail
- Love that horror couldn’t kill – but a rift that hasn’t healed
- EXCLUSIVE: With Cressida Dick poised to get two more years, group of leading figures wronged by Yard pen damning letter to PM, demanding…Met chief must go
- Sir Cliff Richard: Why has no one been made to pay for almost ruining my life?
Politics Journalism
WINNER: Pippa Crerar – The Mirror
- EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson ‘broke Covid lockdown rules’ with Downing Street parties at Xmas
- EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson’s ‘wine time Fridays’ – No10 staff held drinks EVERY week during pandemic
- EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson and wife Carrie to host lavish Chequers wedding party while he clings on
The judges said Crerar “was the journalist who first brought Partygate to the public eye and continued to do so exposing hypocrisy and dishonesty at the heart of government along the way”.
They also chose to highly commend two other journalists for their work on Partygate as each of their entries “demonstrated huge public interest and had the wow factor”.
Highly commended: Mishal Husain, Justin Webb, Nick Robinson, Owenna Griffiths and Ione Wells – BBC Radio 4 Today Programme
- How news broke of Johnson’s resignation
- Justin Webb interviews Dominic Raab
- Justin Webb interviews Lord McDonald
Highly commended: Paul Brand, Imogen Barrer and Nathan Lee – ITV News
- Downing Street staff shown joking in leaked recording about Christmas party they later denied
- Boris Johnson had birthday bash during lockdown, ITV News understands
- Exclusive: Prime Minister Boris Johnson pictured drinking at Downing Street party during lockdown
Business, Finance and Economics Journalism – sponsored by Starling Bank
WINNER: James Oliver, Steve Swann, Nassos Stylianou and Will Dahlgreen – BBC News/Panorama
- Alisher Usmanov: Oligarch says he ditched mansions before sanctions
- Hidden wealth of one of Putin’s ‘inner circle’ revealed
- Banned Russian oligarchs exploited UK secrecy loophole
The judges said: “This journalism expertly exposed how the UK Government opened the door to Russian oligarchs and then allowed them to evade sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine.”
Travel Journalism
WINNER: Simon Calder – The Independent
- Foreign Office finally updates passport advice after passengers to EU wrongly turned away
- P&O Ferries defends brutal sacking of 800 staff
- Liz Truss flew by private jet to Australia at cost of £500,000 to taxpayers
The judges described Calder as “a fantastic consumer champion who led the way on all the big travel stories over the last year”.
Investigation of the Year
WINNER: Susie Coen – Daily Mail
The judges said: “This gruelling investigation led to the government scrapping a hugely expensive and deadly transport initiative. It was an investigation which was praised by the Transport Secretary himself who said it would undoubtedly save lives.”
Scoop of the Year
WINNER: Downing Street partied as Queen and country mourned death of Prince Philip – Daily Telegraph
The judges said: “In a year when there were so many jaw-dropping revelations which was the revelation which, more than any other, caused our judges to choke on the cornflakes. It was the single story which probably did the most to change public opinion about the activities of the prime minister.”
Innovation of the Year – sponsored by Google News Initiative
WINNER: Eco-Bot.Net
The judges said: “Genuinely innovative, this project combined data-scraping, AI and expert journalism and design to expose misinformation on social media.”
News Provider of the Year
WINNER: Sky News
The judges said Sky News “has a brave record when it comes to chronicling the wars of the 21st century and Ukraine has been no exception.
“It has had correspondents in Ukraine for every day of the conflict and secured a memorable first exclusive interview with President Zelensky when it seemed that Kyiv was soon to fall.
“It has also led the way on coverage of the cost of living crisis, Partygate and climate.”
Public Service Journalism – sponsored by the Journalists’ Charity
WINNER: Journalists for UK media in Ukraine
This year’s public service award does not go to a single journalist or even a single news organisation, but to a group that has done more than any other to serve the public interest this year not just in the UK but worldwide.
The award was accepted by BBC Ukraine presenter Olga Malchevska on behalf of the hundreds of journalists who have risked their lives reporting from the country this year.
Marie Colvin Award
WINNER: Antonia Cundy – Financial Times
The judges said: “What impressed was the quality of her writing, and the fact that, as a freelance, she had the gumption to get herself to Ukraine and stay there. She found good, original stories, including reporting on corruption in aid delivery and her grisly piece on the dead Russian soldiers shows the lengths to which she will go to get the story. Her work is very much in Marie’s tradition of determination and grit as well as humanity.”
Highly commended: Shefali Rafiq – Kashmiri photojournalist
Journalist of the Year – sponsored by Camelot
WINNER: Pippa Crerar – The Mirror
The judges said that this year Crerar “did more than any other to hold our political leadership to account in the face of denials and outright dishonesty”.
She broke the first Partygate exclusive and went on to make series of revelations ranging from wine time Fridays to complaints about late night revelling at Number 10 at a time when the rest of the country was in Government mandated lockdown.
Her work was met with multiple denials from everyone up to the PM himself only for every detail to be confirmed in Sue Gray’s official report.
Georgina Henry Prize – in association with Women in Journalism and sponsored by Wiggin
WINNER: Kate Samuelson – Cheapskate
The judges said Samuelson, who will receive a £4,000 prize, “has a proven track record with a long-running project, which perfectly understands its audience and has a slick and vibrant execution” – and they appreciated its potential to bring joy during the current cost of living crisis.
Woman of the Year – in association with Women in Journalism and sponsored by Cision
WINNER: Pippa Crerar – The Guardian, formerly of The Mirror
The judges felt Crerar’s reporting on Partygate was “a vindication for the timeless skills of contact building, earning trust of sources and being relentless in pursuit of a scoop which revealed wrongdoing in the seat of power”.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
