NCTJ Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2010 launched

Picture: Juliet Conway, winner of the Top Scoop Award for Excellence in Journalism 2009.

Entries are invited to the NCTJ Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2010 which are launched this week.

Editors, tutors, trainers, students and trainees are invited to support the awards, which celebrate the achievements of students on NCTJ courses and trainee journalists working toward the NCE who have less than two years’ experience in their field.

The main award categories are for news, sports, scoops, features and images.

For full details of how to enter the awards click here.

Last year Juliet Conway won the Top Scoop Award for Excellence in Journalism and she received her award from Helen Boaden, BBC director of news, at the Society of Editors’ conference 2009.

Juliet, 21, is currently completing an undergraduate degree in English Literature at the University of Sussex, but is also gaining vital journalism experience as editor-in-chief of the university student newspaper The Badger.

Juliet said: “The NCTJ award for excellence is at the top of my CV, when I start looking for a job in journalism I am sure it will be a huge help.

“Receiving the award was important to me because it proved to me that journalism was something I could be good at, it really gave me a great boost in my own personal abilities.”

Juliet received her award for a story written while a student on an NCTJ-accredited course at Brighton Journalist Works. It exposed how a young medical student died from taking a drug called GBL, which had been legally purchased on the internet.

Juliet’s story was printed in the Argus, Brighton, and was the first of a series of similar stories which eventually led to GBL being banned by the Government.

Juliet added: “At the Society of Editors’ conference I spoke to Dominic Ponsford, editor of Press Gazette, and he asked me to write an article outlining how I got the scoop. I did and it was printed in the next edition of Press Gazette, absolutely brilliant for my cuttings file.”

The awards are free to enter and information on categories, what the judges will be looking for and entry details are available by visiting the awards website www.nctjawards.com.

Entries can be submitted in video, audio or written formats.

There is also a chance to submit nominations for a special award, the NCTJ Chairman’s Award which will recognise someone’s outstanding contribution to high standards of journalism training. Anyone can put forward a candidate to be considered for the NCTJ Chairman’s Award.

The deadline for all entry forms to reach the NCTJ is 5pm on Friday 17 September. Tutors and editors may enter on behalf of their students and trainees. Work submitted to the awards must have been produced between 1 September, 2009 and 31 July, 2010.