Richard Horton, who was named by The Times newspaper as the author of the Nightjack blog earlier this year, has been named as one of eight judges for next year’s Orwell Prize.
Horton, a serving officer who won the inaugural Orwell blogging prize pseudonymous in April for his no-holds barred depiction of frontline policing, will join former Labour MP Oona King, now head of diversity at Channel 4, in judging entries for next year’s blog prize.
To much outcry, The Times named Horton as the Nightjack blogger in June after a protracted legal wrangle.
Fearing disciplinary measures would be taken against him Horton, a detective constable with the Lancashire constabulary, obtained a temporary injunction against the Times after a reporter discovered he was the officer behind the Nightjack blog,
However, in a landmark judgment Justice Eady overturned the injunction at the High Court, ruling that Horton had “no reasonable expectation of privacy”.
He and King will be joined by book prize judges Jonathan Heawood, director for English PEN, Andrew Holgate, literary editor of the Sunday Times and writer and broadcaster Francine Stock.
Writer, filmmaker and criminologist Roger Graef and Peter Kellner, president of YouGov, will judge the journalism prize.
The prize, which celebrates political writing, has now begun accepting submissions for its 2010 awards.
Entries for the prize close on 20th January and winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on 19th May next year.
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