After three weeks of deliberations involving 60 judges and 560 entries, Press Gazette is proud to announce the finalists for the 2019 British Journalism Awards.
Every major UK journalism organisation has submitted entries to this year’s awards.
The judges were chosen for their independence and expertise and objectively judged entries against the following criteria:
• Was the work revelatory?
• Did it show journalistic skill and rigour?
• Did it serve the public interest?
The shortlists were finalised during two days of jury deliberations where the entries were discussed and judges sought to reach a consensus.
Since its launch in 2011 the British Journalism Awards has been set apart from other events by two factors: this event is open to all journalists writing for a British audience regardless of the platform AND it recognises great journalism which is both interesting to the public and in the public interest.
Chairman of the judges and Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford said: “Because our entry criteria is so strict publications really do only enter their best work, making the job of the judges particularly hard.
“With only about 20 per cent of entries making it to the shortlists, being a finalist at the British Journalism Awards is a superb achievement in itself.
“One quality shines through all the shortlists: bravery. Again and again journalists have pitted themselves against powerful vested interests to provide a voice for the voiceless and shine a light into the murkiest areas of Britain and the wider world.
“In these days of social media hate mobs it takes courage and a cast-iron skin for a journalist to expose pretty much any uncomfortable truths. In many cases the British Journalism Awards finalists have placed themselves in physical danger in order to report the news.
“Press Gazette thanks and salutes all this year’s entrants and finalists.”
The winners of the 2019 British Journalism Awards will be announced at the awards dinner which is being held on 10 December at the Hilton Bankside in London. To enquire about tickets email: britishjournalismawards@pressgazette.co.uk
The shortlist for News Provider of the Year has yet to be announced. There are no shortlists for Journalist of the Year, sponsored by Camelot, and the Marie Colvin Award – the winners of both will be announced on the night.
Uber is the exclusive headline sponsor for the 2019 BJAs.
The finalists for the 2019 British Journalism Awards are:
Arts and Entertainment
Grant Tucker – The Sunday Times:
- ‘Mums like me shouldn’t be burying our 19-year-old kids, should we?’
- My genes are white but I’m black
- The lady is for turning into Mrs T — Scully is Maggie in The Crown
Oliver Wainright – Guardian News & Media:
- I’ve seen the future and it’s Norwich: the energy-saving, social housing revolution
- Snubbed, cheated, erased: the scandal of architecture’s invisible women
- Horror on the Hudson: New York’s $25bn architectural fiasco
Heloise Wood – The Bookseller:
- Survey reveals extent to which working class feel excluded from book trade
- ‘Spear phishing’ scams continue post-Frankfurt
- Hackers targeted Curtis Brown for months in bid to get hold of The Testaments manuscript
Tom Bryant – Daily Mirror:
- Green Jamie’s £5m deal with Shell
- Liam: I was so lucky to escape knifeman
- Dumbo: Fury as Clunes rides elephant whilst patron of charity opposed
Ian Youngs – BBC News website:
- Pop music’s growing gender gap revealed in the collaboration age
- Can TV soaps like EastEnders and Coronation Street really change lives? The
- Manchester galleries using art to try to change the world
Mark Brown – Guardian News & Media:
- Plans for huge roof bar at Royal Festival Hall condemned as shocking
- Pet project: roadkill helps radical art group defy the norm
- You’ve been warned: London theatre details offensive scenes in advance
Business and Economics Journalism, sponsored by Starling Bank
John Detrixhe – Quartz:
- Scotland is on the front line in the fight against “cash deserts”
- The UK is going cashless and, like most of the world, has no plan for what happens next
- A complete guide to a world without cash
Gavin Finch – Bloomberg Business Week:
- The old boys of LLOYD’s: Here’s to tradition say the daytime drinking, sexual harassing men of the London insurance market
- Lloyd’s of London Unveils Lifetime Bans for Sexual Harassment
- New Groping Claim at Lloyd’s of London Agent Deepens Scandal
Gareth Davies – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism:
- The public service gamble: Councils borrowing billions to play the property market
- Revealed: The thousands of public spaces lost to the council funding crisis
- What has your council sold? Search our map to find out
Owen Walker, Peter Smith, Kadhim Shubber, Robert Smith, Patrick Jenkins, and Kate Beioley – Financial Times:
- Woodford fund shrinks by £560m in a month as investors jump ship
- Woodford’s woes expose a flawed model
- Exotic bet links Hollywood idol and fallen star
Rob Davies – Guardian News & Media:
- Ladbrokes wooed problem gambler – then paid victims £1m
- Government’s FOBT decision influenced by ‘discredited’ report
- Viagogo releases data showing huge scale of ticket touting
Ruth Sunderland – Daily Mail:
- Metro hunts for new chairman
- Deal! Noel ‘wins £5m’ after his bitter row with Lloyds
- Is this ‘Lord’ to blame for the biggest savings scandal in 30 years
Simon Goodley – The Guardian:
- Banned but still in business: law fails to stop rogue landlords
- Freezing UK tower block was cash cow for foreign investors
- Uncovered: the £200m theme park, the businessman – and the missing millions
Tim Bradshaw – Financial Times:
- Jony Ive, iPhone designer, announces Apple departure
- What will Apple do without Jony Ive?
- Jony Ive on leaving Apple, in his own words
Campaign of the Year, sponsored by Uber
Duty of care – The Telegraph (Paul Nuki, Charles Hymas and team)
Dying homeless – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (Maeve McClenaghan and Charles Boutaud)
End this injustice – Daily Express (Liz Perkins)
Join the hospital help force – Daily Mail
Normandy memorial – Daily Mail (Robert Hardman)
Segregated playgrounds – Guardian News & Media (Harriet Grant, Aamna Mohdin and
Chris Michael)
Helen’s law – Daily Mirror (Fiona Duffy and Louie Smith)
Locked up for being autistic – Mail on Sunday (Ian Birrell)
Comment Journalism
Adrian Wooldridge – The Economist:
- Across the world Anglophilia is giving way to Anglobemusement
- Long live the Tory revolution!
- David Cameron’s alternative memoirs
Alex Brummer – Daily Mail:
- Has no one got the guts to solve our elderly care crisis?
- Like all Neil Woodford investors, I feel utterly betrayed. And the more we learn, the angrier I get
- Why I, as a passionate Brexiteer, believe a vote against May’s deal would be an act of national stupidity
Brian Reade – Daily Mirror:
- Doff your cap or you will be dismissed as a Poundland Lenin
- Why Boris is not fit to be PM
- Failing Grayling’s the new poster boy for blundering Britain
Dominic Lawson – The Sunday Times:
- ‘Nick’ goes to jail, but his promoters go scot-free
- Granny knew, and now so does Frank Field
- Parents of vulnerable adults deserve a voice
Ian Birrell – The i
The care system remains twisted
Serious contender for serious times
Marina Hyde – Guardian News & Media:
- Welcome to the Westminster apocalypse. Have you thought about theocracy instead?
- Poor Prince Andrew is ‘appalled’ by Epstein. Let that be an end to it
- Dazed and confused, Johnson stumbles into the twilight zone with a police escort
Clare Dwyer Hogg – Financial Times:
Nesrine Malik – Guardian News & Media:
- Indulging Steve Bannon is just a form of liberal narcissism
- Until Christchurch I thought it was worth debating with Islamophobes. Not any more
- Hillary Clinton’s chilling pragmatism gives the far right a free pass
Tom Peck – The Independent:
- To frighten the EU into believing we are serious about no-deal Brexit, the country has staged a fake traffic jam all the way to Dover
- Why does Nigel Farage keep coming back to Clacton? Because it is nothing like Britain
- Dominic Cummings, the latest self-appointed genius to run 10 Downing Street, is the most deluded of them all
Crime and Legal Affairs Journalism
Anna Moore – Guardian News & Media:
- ‘I miss him so much’: why did a devoted wife kill the man she loved?
- The fatal, hateful rise of choking during sex
- ‘There’s no end and no escape. You feel so, so exposed’: life as a victim of revenge porn
Stephen Wright – Daily Mail:
- ‘Nick’: The damning document
- So who was to blame for breaking law?
- Paedophile mummy’s boy who got twisted sexual kicks from his wicked lies
Tom Harper – The Sunday Times:
- Named: British men ‘linked to spies, terrorists, sheikhs and £8bn fraud’
- Sunbed boss ‘linked to £8bn fraud that helped bin Laden’
- Taxman kept quiet while £8bn fraud helped fund bin Laden
Tom Pettifor – Daily Mirror:
- Confession killer: ‘4 more victims’
- ‘Confession killer’ witness quizzed by cold case cops
- Firm’s probation blunders led to arson murder of my darling boy
Steve Swann, Tom Symonds, Danny Shaw and Wesley Stephenson – BBC News:
Franz Wild – Bloomberg News:
- Trouble in the Congo: The Misadventures of Glencore
- The Mystery Millionaire Who Haunted London’s Insider-Trading Trial
- The U.K.’s Big Saudi Bribery Probe Is Stuck in Legal Limbo
Brooke Johnston – BBC Radio 4:
Alon Aviram, Michael Gillard, Will Franklin, Matt Woodman and Adam Cantwell-Corn – Bristol Cable:
Features Journalism
Aasma Day – HuffPost UK:
- The Crisis Engulfing The NHS – Seen From One Hospital Bed
- This Is What It’s Like To Lose Your Local Leisure Centre
- ‘It Would Be Like Making A School Bully The Headteacher’: Blackburn’s Muslim Community Face Up To Prospect Of Boris Johnson As Prime Minister
Grace Macaskill – Sunday Mirror:
- I covered him with a blanket and he said, ‘good night darling’.. then I woke up in the hospital
- Amber cried out for help.. nobody listened to her
- The last time I spoke to Amelie I said, see you tomorrow… but there was no tomorrow
Henry Mance – Financial Times:
Chris Cook – Tortoise:
Anushka Asthana – Guardian News & Media:
Cherry Wilson – BBC Newsbeat:
Simon Hattenstone and Daniel Lavelle – Guardian News & Media:
- The homeless death of Aimee Teese: ‘I didn’t think it would come to this at 30’
- The homeless death of Jake Humm: ‘It was my deepest, darkest fear’
- The homeless death of Kane Walker: how we let down the kid from careThe empty doorway
Sophie Elmhirst – The Economist 1843 magazine:
Foreign Affairs Journalism, sponsored by The Investigative Journal:
Tom Wilson, David Pilling and David Blood – Financial Times:
How Joseph Kabila lost then won Congo’s election
Congo voting data reveal huge fraud in poll to replace Kabila
Robin Barnwell – ITV Exposure/Hardcash Productions:
Jean Mackenzie and Hayley Valetine – The Nine/BBC Scotland:
Anthony Loyd – The Times:
- Bring me home
- Corpses pile up on worst day of battle for Tripoli
- Suicide pact brothers vow to wreak vengeance on US
Louise Callaghan – The Sunday Times:
- Where being an influencer can get you killed
- ‘The doctors know they’re going to die, so they just keep working’
- Caliphate falls but its ‘crocodile’ cells plot to maul the West
Josie Ensor – The Telegraph:
- Child of the caliphate
- ‘She’ll never know she had a mother who loved her’ – Yazidi women forced to abandon their babies born to Isil
- Shamima Begum was cruel enforcer in Isil’s morality police, say Syrian witnesses
Edward Luce – Financial Times:
- America’s new redneck rebellion
- A preacher for Trump’s America: Joel Osteen and the prosperity gospel
Tom Phillips – Guardian News & Media:
- ‘Chaos, chaos, chaos’: a journey through Bolsonaro’s Amazon inferno
- ‘A slow-motion catastrophe’: on the road in Venezuela, 20 years after Chávez’s rise’
- People have had enough’: Mexican town that lynched alleged kidnappers
John McDermott – The Economist:
Health and Life Sciences Journalism sponsored by EY:
Andrew Gregory – The Sunday Times:
- Britain’s opioid epidemic kills five every day
- We are sleepwalking towards carnage in our communities
- Charity inquiry over links to opioid lobby
Ben Spencer – Daily Mail:
- 770,000 denied care bill help in 2 years
- A cure for blindness
- Victory on pills that devastate lives of millions
Faye Kirkland – BBC:
Ian Birrell – The Mail on Sunday:
- Stop the state from stealing our children
- Dr Death who proudly admits he’s killed 140 patients
- £730,000: That’s how much health fat cats can rake in every year for each autistic child they lock up
Deborah Cohen – BBC Newsnight:
- UK teen dies after stem cell windpipe transplant
- Inside the UK’s drug buyers’ clubs
- Brexit: Some drugs ‘cannot be stockpiled’ for no-deal
Miki Mistrati, Antony Barnett, Jo Burge, Adam Vandermark,
Peter Hirst and Oliver Smith – Channel 4 Dispatches:
Nicholas Carding, Shaun Lintern, James Illman and
Ben Clover – Health Service Journal
- Trusts alerted as firm stockpiles clinical waste and body parts
- Clinical waste building up outside hospitals
- Patients’ body parts were stored dangerously for six months
Lilah Raptopoulos and James Fontanella-Khan – Financial Times:
Innovation, sponsored by Google News Initiative
Brexit: A Cry from the Irish Border – Financial Times (Juliet Riddell,
Tom Hannen, Clare Dwyer Hogg and Stephen Rea)
Britain Talks – Daily Mirror (Ros Wynne-Jones,
Claire Donnelly, Ann Gripper, Helen Harper, Fran Goodman and
Maryam Qaiser)
Creative Producers newsroom innovations- Financial Times (Robin Kwong and Claire Manibog):
- How We Improved Visual Storytelling with Templates that You Can Use, Too
- Are British universities worth the cost? FT readers respond
- How safe is the air we breathe?
The internet, but not as we know it: life online in China, Cuba, India and Russia – Guardian News & Media
ThinkIn – Tortoise (James Harding, Merope Mills, Ceri Thomas, Polly Curtis and Matthew D’Ancona)
Women’s sport – The Telegraph
Interviewer of the Year
Decca Aitkenhead – The Sunday Times
- Russell Brand on his hedonistic past, marriages and becoming a father
- Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, on depression, her self‑harm scars and why she’ll never be PM
- Actor Rob Delaney opens up about grief and the death of his two-year-old son
Eddie Mair – LBC
Hardley Freeman – The Guardian
- Keanu Reeves: ‘Grief and loss, those things don’t ever go away’
- Tony Slattery: ‘I had a very happy time until I went slightly barmy’
- The Michael Jackson accusers: ‘The abuse didn’t feel strange, because he was like a god’
Helen Carroll – Daily Mail
- Aged just nine, Lauren, now 35, lost BOTH parents to the contaminated blood scandal. Today, she’s still waiting for answers – and hasn’t had a penny in compensation…
- Mother who has fought for years to prove pollution killed her daughter wins huge breakthrough as she asks: ‘Why did it cost my little girl’s life to expose Britain’s dirty secret?’
- ‘Sixteen months in prison is not enough for the loss of my brilliant son’s life’: Mother of slain private schoolboy Yousef Makki hits out at sentence for ‘wealthy’ teen friend who stabbed him to death in ‘silly row”Sixteen months in prison is not enough for the loss of my brilliant son’s life’
Patrick Hill – Sunday Mirror
- Gareth Thomas reveals he’s living with HIV and says diagnosis left him suicidal
- Novichok attack survivor Charlie Rowley fears the poison is slowly killing him
- Tyson Fury’s wife Paris reveals she lost their baby on day of his fight – and had to hide it from him
Victoria Derbyshire – BBC
- New Zealand’s PM: How I juggle politics with motherhood
- UKIP candidate hears survivors’ reaction to rape comments
- Sally Challen: I’m sorry I killed my abusive husband
Investigation, sponsored by Transparency International UK
Action fraud – The Times (Paul Morgan-Bentley)
Bet365 undercover – Daily Mail (Tom Payne)
Britain’s Hidden Children’s Homes – BBC Newsnight (Katie Razzall, Sally Chesworth, Innes Bowen, Luke Winsbury, Daniel Clarke, Esme Wren, Laura Lea)
Is Labour anti-Semitic? – BBC Panorama (John Ware, Leo Telling, Neil Grant, Rachel Jupp)
Bad boy of Brexit – Open Democracy (Peter Geoghegan, Jenna Corderoy)
Britain’s #Metoo Scandal – The Telegraph (Claire Newell)
The Prime Minister and the American businesswoman – The Sunday Times (Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott, Gabrial Pogrund)
The sex drug that kills – Buzzfeed UK and Channel 4 Dispatches (Patrick Strudwick)
Undercover: Inside China’s Digital Gulag – ITV Exposure/Hardcash Productions (Robin Barnwell)
Local Journalism
Rodney Edwards – The Impartial Reporter:
- The evil of a principal who abused his power
- I told the Orange Order these men abused my daughter, then I resigned
- We were sexually abused as other Orangemen watched and did nothing
Adam Cantwell-Corn, Matt Woodman, Will Franklin and Alon Aviram – Bristol Cable:
David Thompson, Stephen Nolan, Ross Carson, Mary McKeagney – BBC Nolan Show
- Belfast Roma leaders ‘intimidating and exploiting’
- Community group ‘knew about Roma exploitation’
- Nicolae Nicola: Prominent member of Roma community arrested
Julian Sturdy, Kafui Okpattah, Debbie Tubby and Chris Sharman – BBC East Impact Hub:
- University of Essex ‘sorry’ for sex complaint delays
- Essex students ‘demand change’ to sex complaint policy
- University of Essex: New sexual assault code brought in
Phil Coleman – News & Star (Carlisle):
- Doctor who faked will of west Cumbrian widow led life of deception
- Bogus doctor latest: Urgent checks on 3,000 UK medics
- Cumbria NHS gave bogus psychiatrist’s firm £115k
Hayley Mortimer and Mark Cummings – BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
- Fabricated or Induced Illness
Elaine Forrester, Lyndsey Telford, Gwyneth Jones, Jeremy Adams – BBC Northern Ireland:
Chris Chambers – Global’s Newsroom North West:
- Life After Murder
New Journalist of the Year
Alexandra Heal – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Annabelle Timsit – Quartz
Callum Mason – MoneySavingExpert.com
Gabriel Pogrund – The Sunday Times
Hanna Yusuf – BBC News
Holly Bancroft – The Mail on Sunday
Paul Caruana Galizia – Tortoise
Scarlet Howes – Sunday Mirror
Photojournalism, sponsored Affinity Photo
Anthon Devlin – Freelance/Getty/AFP
Hannah McKay – Reuters
Richard Pohle – The Times
Stefan Rousseau – Press Association
Philip Coburn – Daily Mirror
Javier Fergo – Freelance
Politics Journalism
Eddie Mair – LBC:
Gary Gibbon – Channel 4 News:
John Ware, Leo Telling, Neil Grant and Rachel Jupp – BBC Panorama
Janine Gibson, Jim Pickard, Chris Giles, Delphine Strauss, Sebastian Payne, Joanna Kao, Caroline Nevitt – Financial Times:
John Domokos and John Harris – The Guardian:
Paul Waugh – Huffpost UK:
- Exclusive: Chancellor Sajid Javid’s Media Adviser ‘Fired’ By Downing Street
- The Inside Story: How Theresa May’s Personal And Political Flaws Finally Forced Her Downfall
- The Donald Trump And Boris Johnson Show: UK And US Braced For The New ‘Special Relationship’
Tim Shipman – The Sunday Times:
- Tory party in civil war after Amber Rudd quits
- ‘Loser’ Jeremy Corbyn rocked as key aide Andrew Fisher walks out
- Revealed: Brexit legal advice could sink Theresa May
Toby Helm – The Observer:
- Rebel Labour MPs set to quit party and form centre group
- Secret report reveals government fear of schools chaos after no-deal Brexit
- Boris Johnson seeks legal advice on five-week parliament closure ahead of Brexit
Scoop of the Year
Britain’s #Metoo scandal – The Telegraph (Claire Newell)
Liam Neeson: ‘I walked the streets with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by a “black bastard” so that I could kill him’ – The Independent (Clemence Michallon)
Police called to Boris Johnson’s flat – Guardian News & Media (Jim Waterson)
Got him: Catching the speedboat killer – Daily Mail
Bring me home: The Times finds former schoolgirl who fled to join Isis in Syrian refugee camp – The Times (Antony Loyd)
Our man in US says Trump is inept – Mail on Sunday (Isabel Oakeshott)
Operation Chaos: Whitehall’s secret no-deal plan leaked – The Sunday Times (Rosamund Urwin and Caroline Wheeler)
Trusts alerted as firm stockpiles clinical waste and body parts – Health Service Journal (Nick Carding, Shaun Lintern, Ben Clover and James Illman)
Specialist Journalism
Billy Camden – FE Week:
Revealed: The truth behind the 3aaa investigations
Highbury College in £1.4m legal battle with Nigerian state
Principal’s £150k expenses revealed… finally
John Dickens – Schools Week:
Exposed: Agnew’s £35m school waste claims
Daniel Grote – Citywire:
- Revealed: Woodford lists unquoted stakes offshore to stay below limit
- The inside story of Woodford’s battle to cling onto start-ups
- Woodford needs Hargreaves Lansdown now more than ever
Polly Curtis – Tortoise:
David Bond – Financial Times:
Inside GCHQ: the art of spying in the digital age
Huawei threat uncovers enemy within UK spy agencies
Will Northern Ireland dissidents be able to exploit Brexit chaos?
Zak Garner-Purkis – Construction News:
- Construction’s black market
- Slavery hidden on site
- Inside the Spurs stadium
May Bulman – The Independent:
- Modern slavery victims ‘drawn back into exploitation’ after Home Office slashes support
- Gay woman unlawfully deported from UK was ‘gang-raped and fearing for her life’ after removal to Uganda
- How Home Office makes millions a week from outsourcing visas to Dubai-based firm accused of exploitation
Peter Apps – Inside Housing:
- PM’s chief of staff did not act on multiple warnings about fire safety in months before Grenfell, new letters show
- NHBC signed off more than 50 towers with Grenfell-style cladding systems, investigation reveals
- Expert fire report for Grenfell based on plans which did not include cladding, document reveals
Science Journalism, sponsored by Takeda
Akshat Rathi – Reuters
- The complete guide to the battery revolution
- The inside story of how CATL became the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery company
- How we get to the next big battery breakthrough
Damian Carrington – Guardian News and Media
- Revealed: air pollution may be damaging ‘every organ in the body’
- Plummeting insect numbers ‘threaten collapse of nature’
- UN environment chief resigns after frequent flying revelations
Graham Lawton – New Scientist
- Anti-ageing drugs are coming that could keep you healthier for longer
- Blood amber: The exquisite trove of fossils fuelling war in Myanmar
- Our wooden future: making cars, skyscrapers and even lasers from wood
Nada Farhoud – Daily Mirror
- Kids play in Arctic seas as 22C heatwave grips North Pole at climate change frontline
- Sick British tourists shoot monkeys for ‘fun’ on the safari of shame
- Endangered shark being dished up to unsuspecting customers at UK fish and chip shops
Tom Warren and Katie J.M. Baker – Buzzfeed
- WWF Funds Guards Who Have Tortured And Killed People
- A Leaked Report Shows WWF Was Warned Years Ago Of “Frightening” abuses
- WWF Says Indigenous People Want This Park. An Internal Report Says Some Fear Forest Ranger “Repression.”
Maurice Tamman, Matthew Green, Mari Saito, Sarah Slobin and Maryanne Murray – Reuters
Sports Journalism
Jeremy Wilson – The Telegraph
Mark Daly – BBC Panorama
Matt Lawton – The Times / Daily Mail
Miguel Delaney – The Independent
Mike Keegan, Laura Lambert and Matt Lawton – Daily Mail Sportsmail investigations team
Suzanne Wrack – Guardian News & Media
Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott – Sunday Times Insight
Technology Journalism, sponsored by Huawei
Bill Goodwin, Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Duncan Campbell – Computer Weekly
Geoff White, Osman Iqbal and Simon Hancock – BBC Click
Robin Barnwell – ITV Exposure / Hardcash Productions
Madhumita Murgia – Financial Times
Mehul Srivastava – Financial Times
Alex Hern – Guardian News & Media
The 2019 British Journalism Awards are sponsored by:
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