Irish Sun journalist’s reporting on Gerry Hutch murder trial scoops top award at Justice Media Awards

The Irish Sun Journalist Michael Doyle received the overall winner award for his reporting on the Gerry Hutch murder trial at the Law Society of Ireland’s annual Justice Media Awards on Thursday.

His series was selected from the Court Reporting (print/online) category, beating a record number of 340 entries to win the top award.

President of the Law Society of Ireland Maura Derivan said that the insights gained from Doyle’s reporting inside the Special Court are “invaluable” to society’s understanding of the law “and to ensuring justice is delivered transparently in public”.

“By reporting on the Gerry Hutch murder trial, Michael Doyle succeeds in providing an accessible explanation and detailed account of this high-profile case and the law surrounding it,” she said.

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Overall, 16 awards and 28 merits were presented across 15 categories, which covered access to justice, public interest investigative journalism, and climate justice challenges among other topics.

The Irish Times received 10 nominations for awards, and although it failed to receive any wins, was awarded four different merit certificates.

Brussels correspondent Naomi O’Leary received the merit certificate in this category for her article on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its investigation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, while legal correspondent Mary Carolan was given a merit certificate for her reporting on the Coroners’ Courts and concerns they may be failing families.

The award was won by John Lee of the Irish Daily Mail for his article titled “The end of discretion for gardaí: strike out power is gone”.

Daniel Murray of the Business Post won the print/online Sunday journalism category, for his article titled “Cancer screening: a legal dilemma”.

In the print/online local journalism category, Séamus Enright of the Anglo-Celt won for an “emotional and well-written human interest piece,” about the Belturbet bombing.

Ellen O’Regan, formerly of the Echo and currently working on the Irish Times business desk, received a merit certificate for a piece she wrote about disability activist Evelyn Cynk in the category.

Aisling Moloney of RTÉ Radio 1 won the national radio broadcast journalism category, for a series of reports which examined the effects of the justice system for victims of domestic violence, titled “Family court system ‘not fit for purpose’”.

Fiona McGarry won the local radio broadcast journalism category for an “emotional” radio documentary she made for Midwest Radio titled Searching for Sandra, which judges called “an exceptional radio documentary”.

Catherine Sanz, Neville Cox and Carolyn Goulden of the Business Post won the broadcast podcast (TV/video) category for their podcast titled “Lawfare and legal threats: Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC on defending pro-democracy campaigners around the world”.

Suzanne Brennan, Declan Conlon, Aideen Finnegan and Conor Pope of The Irish Times were awarded a merit certificate in the category for their In the News podcast titled “Will Enoch Burke get out of jail for Christmas?”

In the broadcast journalism (TV/video) category, RTÉ's Prime Time took home the award for their programme Christian Brothers: Denial.

Shane Phelan of the Irish Independent won the print/online court reporting category, for a piece about an unlawful order made by a former master of the High Court.

In the broadcast court reporting category, Daniel Considine of Shannonside FM won the award, for a report called In the Line of Duty, about the trial for the murder of Garda Colm Horkan.

“After coming here without his parents looking for safety, a migrant child is left to live alone among adults”, by Shamim Malekmian of the Dublin Inquirer, won an award for print/online human rights and social justice reporting

In the broadcast human rights and social justice reporting category, Seán Mac Giolla Phádraig, David Nally and Liam O’Brien won for their RTÉ Documentary on One programme Blackrock Boys.

The Business Post won the environmental law/climate justice reporting for an article titled “A ‘dystopian hellscape’: How China created modern-day concentration camps for its ethnic minorities”.

The Irish Times’ Naomi O’Leary was also awarded a merit certificate in this category for her report titled “Council of Europe challenges Britain over Troubles amnesty Bill”.

Roman Shortall of the Ditch won the newcomer of the year category, while Caoimhe Looney of the University of Galway won the best student journalism award for her piece called “The right to protesting and housing”, which was broadcast on UG’s college radio station Flirt FM.