The Guardian has been named news provider of the year for 2023 at the annual British Journalism Awards.
The newspaper fended off competition from organisations including the Times, Financial Times and Sky News to win the coveted award at the ceremony in London on Thursday.
The judges said: “This title has shone a light on under-reported parts of the world and campaigned for social justice and environmental change with its investigations this year. And it has even investigated difficult truths from its own past while delivering a mass audience and achieving financial sustainability.”
Exclusives from the Guardian have included the revelation that the Conservative peer Michelle Mone secretly received tens of millions of pounds from the profits of PPE Medpro, and the newspaper’s investigation into sexual misconduct at the Confederation of British Industry.
In March, the organisation launched Cotton Capital, a journalism series covering the Guardian’s own history in the context of Britain’s broader historical links with enslavement.
Overall, the Guardian won five awards. Emily Dugan was the winner in the crime and legal journalism category for her reporting on the case of Andrew Malkinson, which the judges described as “exemplary campaigning work”.
Malkinson, 57, was convicted of raping a stranger in 2003 in Greater Manchester, despite there being no DNA evidence. The court of appeal overturned his conviction in July after forensic testing linked another man to the crime.
Rachael Healy took home the prize in the arts and entertainment journalism category. Healy reported last year that the Britain’s Got Talent judge David Walliams made derogatory and sexually explicit remarks about contestants during the recording of an episode of the ITV show. Walliams later apologised for the comments.
Anna Isaac, the Guardian’s City editor, was the winner in the business, finance and economics journalism category for her investigation into the CBI, which the judges said “was a real scoop which has had wide-ranging impact”.
William Ralston took home the prize for sports journalism for his Guardian Long Read going inside the world of Premier League referees.
The Guardian was also highly commended in the social affairs, diversity and inclusion category for Cotton Capital, with judges saying “few publications would be brave enough to subject themselves to such scrutiny”.
The Bruno and Dom project, continuing the work of the murdered journalist Dom Phillips and the environmental activist Bruno Pereira, was highly commended in the campaign of the year category.
The judges said: “This was a mighty reporting effort in a noble cause, to ensure that killing a journalist did not kill the story of criminal environmental destruction they uncovered.”
Simon Hattenstone was highly commended in the feature writer of the year category for his “fine writing”, and Rachel Salvidge and Leana Hosea were highly commended in the energy and environment journalism category for their stories on “forever chemicals” in the UK, a Guardian collaboration with Watershed Investigations.
Earlier, Dominic Ponsford, the chair of the judges and editor-in-chief of the Press Gazette, told the audience at the London Hilton Bankside: “These awards, like journalism itself, are not perfect. But they are our very best attempt to honestly and without favour recognise journalism which shows skill and rigour, tells us something we didn’t already know and … serves the public interest.”
Gabriel Pogrund of the Sunday Times, described by the judges as “prolific scoop getter”, won the journalist of the year award and the investigation of the year prize went to Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates for his work on Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs.
