Paul Foot Award
Encyclopedia
The Paul Foot Award is an award given for investigative or campaigning journalism, set up by The Guardian
and Private Eye in memory of the journalist Paul Foot
, who died in 2004.
The award, which was first given in 2005, is for material published in print or online during the previous year. The prize fund totals £10,000, with £5,000 given to the winner and £1,000 to each of five runners-up.
of the Daily Mail
for his investigation into "Shaken Baby Syndrome" which led to the wrongly imprisoned mothers Sally Clark
, Angela Cannings
and Donna Anthony
being freed and resulted in the exposure of the prosecution's chief witness, the eminent paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow
.
2006: David Harrison for his investigation into sex trafficking in Eastern Europe published in The Sunday Telegraph.
2007: Shared by Deborah Wain (Doncaster Free Press
) for her exposé of corruption in the Doncaster Education City project and by David Leigh
and Rob Evans (The Guardian
) for their investigation into bribery in the British arms trade.
2008 The top prize of £3,000 each was awarded to Camilla Cavendish
of The Times
for an investigation into the many injustices which have resulted from the Children Act 1989
and the professional cultures that have grown up around child "protection"; and Richard Brooks of Private Eye
for his investigation in to the mismanagement and financial irregularities surrounding the sale of the UK government's international development business, Actis
. Four runners-up, including Andrew Gilligan
of the London Evening Standard, were each awarded £1,000.
2009: At a presentation ceremony at the Spin Bar in London's Millbank Tower
on 2 November 2009, the £5,000 Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism 2009 was awarded to Ian Cobain of The Guardian for his long-running investigation into Britain’s involvement in the torture of terror suspects detained overseas. Five runners-up received £1,000 each.
2010: Clare Sambrook for her investigating, reporting and campaigning against the government policy of locking up asylum-seeking families in conditions known to harm their mental health, and scrutinising the commercial contractors who run the detention centres for profit. A Special Lifetime Campaign Award of £2,000 was also presented to Eamonn McCann
for his 40 years of campaigning journalism on behalf of the victims of Bloody Sunday
. Each of the runners-up on the shortlist received £1,000. These were, in alphabetical order:
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and Private Eye in memory of the journalist Paul Foot
Paul Foot
Paul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
, who died in 2004.
The award, which was first given in 2005, is for material published in print or online during the previous year. The prize fund totals £10,000, with £5,000 given to the winner and £1,000 to each of five runners-up.
Past winners
2005: John SweeneyJohn Sweeney (journalist)
John Sweeney is an award-winning journalist and author, currently working as an investigative journalist for the BBC's Panorama series.- Investigative journalism :...
of the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
for his investigation into "Shaken Baby Syndrome" which led to the wrongly imprisoned mothers Sally Clark
Sally Clark
Sally Clark was a British solicitor who became the victim of an infamous miscarriage of justice when she was wrongly convicted of the murder of two of her sons in 1999...
, Angela Cannings
Angela Cannings
Angela Cannings was wrongfully convicted in the UK in 2002 of the murder of her seven-week-old son, Jason, who died in 1991, and of her 18-week-old son Matthew, who died in 1999...
and Donna Anthony
Donna Anthony
Donna Anthony is a British woman from Somerset who was jailed in 1998 after being convicted of the murder of her two babies. She was cleared and freed after having spent more than six years in prison....
being freed and resulted in the exposure of the prosecution's chief witness, the eminent paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow
Roy Meadow
Sir Samuel Roy Meadow is a British paediatrician and professor, who rose to initial fame for his 1977 academic paper on the now controversial Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy and his crusade against parents who, he believes, wilfully harm or kill their children. He was knighted for these works...
.
2006: David Harrison for his investigation into sex trafficking in Eastern Europe published in The Sunday Telegraph.
2007: Shared by Deborah Wain (Doncaster Free Press
Doncaster Free Press
The Doncaster Free Press is a weekly newspaper in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is owned by South Yorkshire Newspapers , a subsidiary of the Johnston Press publishing empire.- Content of the newspaper :...
) for her exposé of corruption in the Doncaster Education City project and by David Leigh
David Leigh
David Leigh is a British journalist and author, currently investigations executive editor of The Guardian.-Early life:Leigh was born in 1946 and educated at Nottingham High School and King's College, Cambridge, receiving a research degree from Cambridge in 1968.-Career:Leigh has been a prominent...
and Rob Evans (The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
) for their investigation into bribery in the British arms trade.
2008 The top prize of £3,000 each was awarded to Camilla Cavendish
Camilla Cavendish
Camilla Hilary Cavendish is a British columnist and leader writer for The Times. She graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford in 1989 with a first-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics . She has worked as a McKinsey management consultant, an aid worker, and CEO of a not-for-profit...
of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
for an investigation into the many injustices which have resulted from the Children Act 1989
Children Act 1989
The Children Act 1989 is a British Act of Parliament that altered the law in regard to children. In particular, it introduced the notion of parental responsibility. Later laws amended certain parts of the Children Act...
and the professional cultures that have grown up around child "protection"; and Richard Brooks of Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
for his investigation in to the mismanagement and financial irregularities surrounding the sale of the UK government's international development business, Actis
Actis
In Greek mythology, Actis was one of the Heliadae, a son of Rhodos and Helios. Actis, along with his brothers, Triopas, Macar and Candalus, were jealous of a fifth brother, Tenages's, skill at science. They killed him and Actis escaped to Egypt. According to Diodorus Siculus, Actis built the city...
. Four runners-up, including Andrew Gilligan
Andrew Gilligan
Andrew Paul Gilligan is a British journalist best known for a 2003 report on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme in which he said a British government briefing paper on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction had been 'sexed up', a claim that ultimately led to a public inquiry that criticised Gilligan...
of the London Evening Standard, were each awarded £1,000.
2009: At a presentation ceremony at the Spin Bar in London's Millbank Tower
Millbank Tower
Millbank Tower is a high skyscraper in the City of Westminster at Millbank, on the banks of the River Thames in London, in the United Kingdom. The Tower was constructed in 1963 for Vickers and was originally known as Vickers Tower. It was designed by Ronald Ward and Partners and built by John...
on 2 November 2009, the £5,000 Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism 2009 was awarded to Ian Cobain of The Guardian for his long-running investigation into Britain’s involvement in the torture of terror suspects detained overseas. Five runners-up received £1,000 each.
2010: Clare Sambrook for her investigating, reporting and campaigning against the government policy of locking up asylum-seeking families in conditions known to harm their mental health, and scrutinising the commercial contractors who run the detention centres for profit. A Special Lifetime Campaign Award of £2,000 was also presented to Eamonn McCann
Eamonn McCann
Eamonn McCann is an Irish journalist, author and political activist.-Life:McCann was born and has lived most of his life in Derry. He was educated at St. Columb's College in the city. He is prominently featured in the documentary film The Boys of St...
for his 40 years of campaigning journalism on behalf of the victims of Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Bloody Sunday —sometimes called the Bogside Massacre—was an incident on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, in which twenty-six unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders were shot by soldiers of the British Army...
. Each of the runners-up on the shortlist received £1,000. These were, in alphabetical order:
- Jonathan Calvert and Clare Newell (Sunday Times) on MPs and peers seeking cash for influence.
- David Cohen (Evening StandardEvening StandardThe Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
) on the plight of the poor in London, including children's poverty and the continuing existence of paupers' graves in the capital.
- Nick DaviesNick DaviesNick Davies is a British investigative journalist, writer and documentary maker.Davies has written extensively as a freelancer, as well as for The Guardian and The Observer, and been named Reporter of the Year Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards...
(GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
) on phone-hacking conducted by the News of the WorldNews of the WorldThe News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
when Andy CoulsonAndy CoulsonAndrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...
, later the government's director of communications, was editor.
- Linda Geddes (New ScientistNew ScientistNew Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
) on evidence that DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
tests are not always accurately interpreted.
See also
- British Press AwardsBritish Press AwardsThe British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
- James Cameron Award for JournalismJames Cameron (journalist)Mark James Walter Cameron was a prominent British journalist, in whose memory the annual James Cameron Memorial Lecture is given.-Early life:...
- Orwell PrizeOrwell PrizeThe Orwell Prize used to be regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing.Three prizes are awarded each year: one for a book, one for journalism and another for blogging...
- What the Papers Say AwardWhat the Papers SayWhat The Papers Say is a BBC radio programme that originally ran for many years on British television.Its first incarnation was the second longest-running programme on British television after Panorama...