Three separate Lancashire Evening Telegraph investigations have received widespread praise in the community.
The Newsquest paper uncovered how young girls across East Lancashire are being pushed into prostitution by predominantly Asian men who pay them with money, drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.
Police and social workers have been trying to combat the problem but three MPs including former home secretary Jack Straw welcomed the Telegraph's campaign to get more Home Office funding to help seek out offenders and set up help lines and counselling for victims.
Local MPs praised a separate investigation by the paper using the Freedom of Information Act, which revealed a children's nursery was opened meters away from a bail hostel housing paedophiles.
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A fortnight after the investigation, Home Secretary John Reid ordered the removal of all sex offenders from the hostel and ten others across the country.
The Telegraph also used the FoI Act to disclose that 72 teachers had been attacked in the past year in East Lancashire schools.
Unions then launched their own investigation and a number of teachers contacted the paper telling of how violence had driven from the profession.
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