The BBC dominated the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards held in London last week, winning eight awards including scoop of the year.
At a ceremony hosted by ITV News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham, BBC News won the scoop award for its exclusive on the meltdown of Northern Rock by business editor Robert Peston. The judges said the scoop became a major news story of the year that was still making the headlines. They said: ‘This exclusive was not the result of some authorised leak, it came from one journalist following a hunch that something was up and tracking down the truth through contacts and commitment.”
BBC Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman won the presenter award, BBC political correspondent Nick Robinson won the specialist journalist prize, and World Service journalist Alan Johnston received the judges award for ‘extraordinary broadcast journalism”.
The corporation also took home gongs for current affairs in the nations & regions, and home categories. Northern Ireland’s Spotlight programme won the N&R award for its sting of illegal pitbull-fighting and The Great Granny Chart Invasion – Power To The People on BBC Two won the home-based current affairs award. The BBC News and BBC N&R teams won the multimedia award for coverage of last year’s floods. Camera operator of the year was Darren Conway for BBC News.
Other winners included Al Jazeera’s Hamish MacDonald, who won the fledgling broadcaster’s first RTS award for young journalist of the year. The ITV Evening News, produced by ITN, won news programme of the year.
Veteran news presenter John Suchet was given a lifetime achievement award in recognition of his 35-year career in broadcasting.
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