NNI Journalism Awards 2013 Celebrate a Great Year for Newspaper Journalism

The NNI Journalism Awards celebrate quality, original newspaper journalism in print and online.

The 2013 awards took place on November 7th in Dublin, with 21 industry awards presented for excellence in Irish newspaper journalism.

A Great Year for Newspaper Journalism

The award for NNI National Journalist of the Year went to Kitty Holland of The Irish Times for her reporting of the Savita Halappanavar story. A very popular winner, Kitty Holland received a standing ovation as she collected her award.

Other highlights included Paul Williams winning Scoop of the Year for the Anglo Tapes story, the independent.ie team, with Paul Williams, Fionnan Sheahan and Tom Lyons winning the new Digital Award for their online presentation of the Anglo Tapes story and Anthony Hennigan of the Western People winning NNI Regional Journalist of the Year.

A special award was presented posthumously to Donal Walsh for Outstanding Contribution to Public Debate. Donal’s writing about his struggle with cancer reminded the newspaper reading public to be thankful for the simple things in life.

“Donal, the Celestial Tiger, will forever burn bright in our memory for teaching us to value what we have – when we have it,” said Brendan O’Connor, who presented the award to Donal’s mother Elma.

Awards Recognise Innovation

The 2013 awards programme included five new categories: News Reporter of the Year, Foreign Coverage, News Analysis, Campaign of the Year and the Digital Award. The addition of these new categories is testament to the fast changing nature of the current media landscape.

The awards programme is currently being reviewed before the launch of the NNI Journalism Awards 2014. The awards will adapt and change over time to reflect how newspaper journalism continues to evolve.