Issue No.14, July 2004

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The Annual Awards Luncheon 2004

The Club's Annual Awards Luncheon was held for the first time in the Abraham Lincoln Room of the Savoy Hotel and was sponsored, for the second year running, by British Gas who all were agreed did a tremendous job with PR and overall design of the event. The Guest of Honour was the Rt. Hon. Michael Howard QC MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, and nearly 200 top figures from the press, broadcast media and business worlds joined with Club members to celebrate the winners, all of whose names were a closely kept secret until the day itself.

This year there were two new categories, Daily Newspaper of the Year and Sunday Newspaper of the Year. Also this year Robert Edwards CBE, chairman of the judges for many years, stood down and was replaced by Philippa Kennedy OBE, Deputy Chairman of the LPC. Other judges were Robin Esser (LPC Director and Executive Managing Editor, Daily Mail), Bill Hagerty (Editor, British Journalism Review), Bob Satchwell (Director, Society of Editors), Mish Tullar (Head of Communications, British Gas) and George Westropp (LPC Director and former Chairman). Master of ceremonies was Andrew Marr, Political Editor of the BBC and winner of last year's Broadcasting Journalist of the Year Award.

After Grace by the Club's chaplain, Canon David Meara of St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, the Luncheon began with Club Chairman Professor Donald Trelford announcing that 2003 had been 'an outstanding year for journalism, with some brave and brilliant reporting from Iraq and a series of domestic scoops that demonstrate the continuing health and vitality of the British press'. He then introduced Mark Clare, Managing Director of British Gas, who reported on the success of the company's 'Here to HELP' programme launched last year to lift half a million British homes out of fuel poverty and thanked the many newspapers and broadcasters for their support with this and British Gas's 'Doing the Right Thing' initiative.

In his speech Michael Howard responded to recent cases of celebrities taking newspapers to court for invasion of privacy by pledging that a Conservative Government would protect the freedom of the press and would challenge any attempt to introduce a privacy law by the back door using the Human Rights Act and other legislation. 'We Conservatives support your right to regulate yourselves; it is a crucial part of press freedom.' He added: 'I am opposed to the courts fashioning legislation that should be for Parliament to decide - and I doubt that Parliament could ever form a workable privacy law. The next Conservative Government will review the workings of the Human Rights Act and if we find it to be defective we will amend it.'

Simon Kelner, Editor of the Independent, received the Daily Newspaper of the Year Award from Rt Hon. Michael Howard QC MP and Mark Clare, Managing Director of British Gas.

The winner of the Edgar Wallace Award for Fine Writing was Ross Benson of the Daily Mail.

The Scoop of the Year Award was won by Ryan Parry of the Daily Mirror.

Editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, collected the Sunday Newspaper of the Year Award.

The Consumer Affairs Journalist of the Year Award went to Sean Poulter of the Daily Mail.

The BBC's Rageh Omaar won the Broadcasting Journalist of the Year Award.

William Lewis of the Sunday Times was Business Journalist of the Year.

Andrew Marr then announced that the winner of the Daily Newspaper of the Year Award was the Independent for its 'sheer courage' in becoming the first broadsheet to 'go tabloid'. Sunday Newspaper of the Year was the News of the World. In the words of the judges: 'Their scoops are magnificent, they shine lights in the murkier corners of life, they expose hypocrisy and every Sunday they give us all a bloody good read.'

Scoop of the Year went to Ryan Parry of the Daily Mirror who infiltrated Buckingham Palace as a footman. The judges admired Parry's 'powers of endurance and single-minded reporting skills', adding: 'Who can ever see a picture of the Queen now without thinking about how she keeps her cornflakes in a Tupperware container?'

Consumer Affairs Journalist of the Year was Sean Poulter of the Daily Mail who was praised for his campaigns on the risks of GM foods and 'rip-off' credit cards. William Lewis of the Sunday Times won the Business Journalist of Year Award for his 'consistently high standard of business comment'.

The Edgar Wallace Award for Fine Writing went to Ross Benson of the Daily Mail, 'a magnificent all-rounder whom any editor would value on the team'. And finally, Rageh Omaar of the BBC won the Broadcasting Journalist of the Year Award. In the view of the judges, he had emerged as the 'face' of the Iraq war and they praised his skill at managing to tread 'the difficult line of maintaining his credibility while not upsetting the Iraqi generals enough to be thrown out of the country'.

The ceremony ended when Philippa Kennedy thanked the judges and the speakers for all their work as well as Bridget York of British Gas and Club Secretary Mark Bryant for all their help behind the scenes.

Details of those shortlisted for the awards are available here. The awards this year are kindly sponsored by British Gas. All photos by David Rotchelle.