The Irish Times has picked up four awards at the NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards 2016, including the Digital Innovation award for its work on the commemoration of the 1916 Rising.
Presenting the awards at a ceremony in the Mansion House in Dublin, the judges praised the Remembering the 1916 Rising package on irishtimes.com for its innovative multi-media content and presentation.
The 2016 Journalist of the Year and overall winner of this year's award was Michael Clifford of the Irish Examiner, who was praised by the panel for a body of work that consistently demonstrated "basic characteristics of good journalism".
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He was, said the citation, a writer whose commentaries and analysis were “invariably grounded in careful research and inquiry. They are distinguished by their sharp insight and their balanced judgment”.
The awards were presented by Vincent Crowley, chairman of NewsBrands Ireland, Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, who was guest of honour, chief executive of Premier Lotteries Ireland Dermot Griffin and chairman of the judging panel, Prof John Horgan.
Investigative Journalism of the Year
Reporter Peter Murtagh of The Irish Times won the Investigative Journalism of the Year award for his series on Denis O'Brien and the Red Flag case.
The judges said Murtagh’s 15,000 “elegantly written and diligently researched words” traced a narrative arc worth of a John Le Carré thriller, encompassing three continents, high finance and black ops”.
“The outlook for traditional media in Ireland, we are repeatedly told, is bleak. At the same time, it is proclaimed that the media is not objective when it comes to reporting upon itself,” the citation read.
It said there was no denying the financial pressures and constraints under which journalists and newsrooms were under.
“Nor can there be any argument that the ubiquitous threat of expensive litigation here adds another layer of risk to journalism which relies on disclosure to help the public, and thereby the wider democracy, to understand what is happening in society and who exercises the levers of power.”
The judges said Murtagh’s winning entry demonstrated that “opportunity and defiance remains still for those newspapers prepared to grasp it”.
Critic of the Year
Irish Times writer Patrick Freyne was presented with the Critic of the Year award for his "witty, thoughtful and very, very smart" writing. The judges said Freyne had "an uncanny ability to place the articles within the wider cultural zeitgeist".
Rosita Boland of The Irish Times won the News Analysis of the Year category for her journalism addressing "difficult topics and human stories of loss, struggle and injustice".
Tom Lyons of the Sunday Business Post was Business Journalist of the Year and Patrick O'Connell of the Irish Daily Star/Sunday World won the News Reporter of the Year category.
Jody Corcoran of the Sunday Independent won the Political Journalist of the Year award, while Neil Francis of that newspaper won the Sports Writer of the Year prize.
A total of 24 category awards were presented in this year’s NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards, held in association with the National Lottery. There were 1,200 individual entries.