Michael Clarke has been named the 2005 Shepherd Neame Essex Journalist of the Year.
The
judges praised the Southend Echo crime reporter for his coverage of the
Sally Geeson murder case. They felt Clarke had “nurtured his contacts
to really get under the skin of what became a major national story”.
Other
winners in the Shepherd Neame awards included Paul Peterson, senior
reporter on the Yellow Advertiser, who received the Essex Campaign of
the Year title for the paper’s “Access for All” campaign. It
highlighted problem areas for disabled people and resulted in several
shops and public buildings making changes throughout the county.
The
Thurrock Gazette’s Ryan Goad won Young Journalist of the Year, Amelia
Reynolds of BBC TV Look East was awarded the Bishops Finger Broadcast
Journalist of the Year and the East Anglian Daily Times’s James
Fletcher was given a discretionary award for his pictures of
povertystricken young people in Bucharest.
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