THE Liam Hourican award for European Journalist of the Year was made yesterday to a freelance, Paul Larkin, of CoCo Television/ RTE. He received £3,000 and a sculpture for two programmes in the series shown on RTE, The Gap in the Mountain. The same entry also won the national radio and television award.
The award in the national newspaper category went to Brendan Keenan of Independent Newspapers.
Donna Pierce of AnnaLivia FM won the local broadcasting award. In the magazines category, the award went to Nicholas O'Hare of the Irish Field.
The Young European Journalist (under 25) award was won by Ronan Clarke for the Agtel Communications/RTE programme Ear to the Ground.
Two special awards were made to mark the coverage of Ireland's EU presidency last year. They were shared by Paul Gillespie, foreign editor of The Irish Times, and John Blackman, executive producer of RTE current affairs special events.
A special commendation was made to Maurice Neill of the Business Telegraph in Belfast.
No award was made in the local newspapers category.
The awards were organised by the Irish Section of the Association of European Journalists in cooperation with the European Commission and Parliament representation in Ireland.
The Liam Hourican award is dedicated to the memory of the late journalist and Commission official who died in 1993.