John Cleese presents Daily Mail with five out of seven prizes at inaugural Bad Press Awards

The Daily Mail came out the overall winner at the inaugural “Bad Press Awards” and “The Trashies” presented by comedian John Cleese on Saturday night at the Byline Festival in East Sussex.

Editor Paul Dacre, and writers Katie Hopkins and Toby Young, led Daily Mail and Mail Online to five of the seven awards: the Most Misleading Headline, the Least Accurate Article, the Trashiest Writer, the Trashiest Publication and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Dacre.

Most of the awards were voted for by the public on the websites of Byline and The Trashies at Media Diversified (a group which seeks to “cultivate and promote skilled writers of colour”).

Dacre’s prize was the only one to be voted for in a “public boo” on the night. After a “re-boo” to confirm his slim lead, Dacre took the award from runners-up, Kelvin MacKenzie and Rebekah Brooks. However, MacKenzie also came away with an award for the Trashiest article: “Why did Channel 4 have a presenter in a hijab fronting coverage of Muslim terror in Nice.”

The first award of the night went to The Daily Mirror, for the Most Obvious Sponsored Content. None of the winners were there on the night to receive their awards.

The Bad Press Awards and The Trashies, held in a drafty festival tent pitched precariously on a slope in the East Sussex countryside, was the most attended event at last weekend’s inaugural Byline Festival.

Byline Festival joint organiser, Peter Jukes, said of the awards: “It is designed to be a celebration of the worst of British journalism which we hope will eventually make money we can spend on encouraging good journalism.

“It will particularly support underrepresented or misrepresented groups in the media, either by funding people to attend the festival – this year 50 Turkish journalists were able to attend – or mentoring them into journalism.”