21 Feb 2013

Channel 4 News wins six RTS television journalism awards

Channel 4 News sweeps the board with a record six awards from the Royal Television Society – including daily news programme of the year.

Jon Snow wins presenter of the year at RTS awards

Channel 4 News picked up six awards at the leading television journalism awards in the UK, including daily news programme of the year and presenter of the year for Jon Snow, who was hailed as being “consistently in a class of his own”.

The programme also won the independent award for the “moving and supremely honest” Horror in Homs film from Syria, made by French photographer Mani, which the Royal Television Society judges said “defined the Syria conflict for millions of people.”

The innovative news award went to Channel 4 News’s No Go Britain campaign, which shone a spotlight on the daily difficulties faced by disabled people using public transport in the year of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The coverage in the winning entry shone with personality, vigour, robustness and cheekiness. RTS judges

Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson won television journalist of the year for his work on stories from around the globe, including coverage from Syria as well as doorstepping Kelvin MacKenzie over Hillsborough and leading the pack on the collapse of Glasgow Rangers Football Club on television and online.

Ciaran Jenkins scooped young journalist of the year, with judges particularly highlighting his report from Merthyr Tydfil on unemployment and describing him as an “impressive and entertaining story-teller”.

Watch below: the award-winning Horror in Homs film.

Overall, judges described Channel 4 News as “a programme with a fresh sense of confidence”, adding: “The coverage in the winning entry shone with personality, vigour, robustness and cheekiness.”

The programme beat off competition from the BBC, ITV News, Al Jazeera and Sky to take home the six awards.

The other big winner of the night was ITV Studios for ITV1, with the Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile programme which uncovered one of the most important stories of the year. The documentary won the current affairs – home award and scoop of the year.

ITV News also won the news coverage – home award for its coverage of the Savile scandal.

Watch below: Alex Thomson doorsteps Kelvin MacKenzie over Hillsborough.

Also recognised at the awards was Susie Schofield, the widow of journalist John Schofield, who was killed in 1995 aged 29 while working on BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight in Croatia.

The John Schofield Trust was set up shortly after John’s death but last year Susie revamped it and set up a pioneering mentoring scheme for young broadcast journalists. Ciaran Jenkins was awarded a bursary by the Trust to mark his win in the young journalist category.

Richard Tait CBE, a former editor in chief of ITN and editor of Channel 4 News as well as BBC Newsnight, won the lifetime achievement award.

The BBC and CNN International were among the other winners.

Below: a photo gallery of the Channel 4 News team accepting their awards.