SCOTTISH Parliament Presiding Officer, Tricia Marwick, is one of five notable public and media figures who will judge this year’s Scottish Press Awards.
Chaired by Austin Lafferty – a lawyer, broadcaster, journalist and past president of the Law Society of Scotland – the judging committee also includes:
- Janette Harkess, former Herald deputy editor, who is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation complaints board and was also head of media for the Commonwealth Games;
- John Mullin, former Independent on Sunday editor, and who recently headed up BBC Scotland’s referendum coverage;
- Andrew Wilson, former SNP MSP and now managing partner of Charlotte Street Partners Strategic Communications consultancy;
- Lindsay McGarvie, director of 3×1 Public Relations, also ex-political editor at the Sunday Mail and past winner of the Scottish Political Reporter of the Year.
The Scottish Press Awards are the top awards for the newspaper industry in Scotland and will showcase the best of journalistic talent in both print and digital formats across 21 categories. Categories include ‘Front Page of the Year’, ‘Scoop of the Year’, Sports Photographer of the Year’, ‘News Photographer of the Year’ and ‘Newspaper of the Year’.
Austin Lafferty said: “We’ve assembled an exceptionally strong panel of judges for this year’s event, and all of us are very much looking forward to evaluating what the cream of the Scottish newspaper industry has to offer.
“Each of us is a passionate advocate for Scotland’s newspaper industry, but as a group we contain a varied mix of unique and differing perspectives. I feel this will make a fair and robust team of judges, and I’m sure the committee will enjoy some spirited discussion as we whittle down the final shortlists.”
The Scottish Newspaper Society (SNS), which organises the event, predicts an excellent mix of entries due to what it has called “Scotland’s momentous year in the spotlight”.
SNS director, John McLellan, said: “Scotland enjoyed extraordinary global attention in 2014, with The Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup and the independence referendum focussing worldwide interest on our country. The Scottish media rose admirably to these opportunities by covering each event for both domestic and global audiences. I for one am looking forward to seeing the shortlists for what I am sure will be a bumper crop of high-quality entries.”
The deadline for entries is Wednesday 14 January 2015. The finalists will be announced in early March, and an awards dinner will be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow on 16 April 2015.
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