Awards Celebrate Public Interest Journalism

The vital role of public interest journalism in UK newspapers was celebrated at the British Journalism Awards this week.

Sunday Times Insight Team editor Jonathan Calvert was named Journalist of the Year in recognition of a year of agenda-setting investigations exposing widespread blood-doping in international athletics and corruption at the top of football world governing body Fifa.

The Marie Colvin award for raising the reputation of journalism over the course of their career went to Alan Rusbridger who stepped down this summer after 20 years as Guardian editor.

The hard-fought investigation of the year prize went to The Guardian for the HSBC files.

The awards for public interest journalism are organised by Press Gazette and were held this year in association with Audi.

They are open to all journalists wherever they work and attracted entries from every major newspaper publisher, broadcaster and online news publisher in the UK.

They attracted more than 300 entries for the 15 categories. Last year more than 200 journalists gathered at Stationers’ Hall in London for the awards reception.

Press Gazette editor and chairman of judges Dominic Ponsford said the number of high-quality entries to the awards suggest campaigning and investigative journalism is growing in the UK.

He said: “I think these awards provide clear evidence that publishers across the media increasingly see the value of campaigning and investigative journalism as a way of rising above the digital noise and chatter.”