The public service accolade at the British Journalism Awards 2022 has been given to journalists for UK media who have reported from the ground in Ukraine this year.
The public service journalism award is a special prize given by Press Gazette and the Journalists’ Charity to honour work by those who “most memorably raised the reputation of our trade over the last year”, award host Jeremy Vine said at London’s Hilton Park Lane on Thursday night.
Vine told the audience: “This year’s award does not go to a single journalist or even a single news organisation, but to a group who have done more than any other to serve the public interest this year – not just in the UK, but worldwide.”
BBC Ukraine presenter Olga Malchevska accepted the award from Journalists’ Charity trustee John Crowley on behalf of the hundreds of UK media workers who have been in Ukraine since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February.
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“Thank you very much for your incredible fight for justice, truth and impartiality” – Watch the heartbreaking speech by @Yollika who paid tribute to the 100+ journalists who have reported from Ukraine for UK media at last night’s #bja2022 https://t.co/XT2OGk1QSL pic.twitter.com/3uWXu56LV0
— Press Gazette (@pressgazette) December 16, 2022
Malchevska, who received a standing ovation for her moving words, told the audience: “I’m really grateful for this honour to collect this award on behalf of all of our brave colleagues who have been risking their lives covering the war in my home. This year has been quite tough and I want to take this opportunity to remember those who paid for the truth with their lives.”
[In full: British Journalism Awards winners 2022]
Malchevska remembered the eight journalists believed to have died doing their journalistic duties in Ukraine since February, and the further 34 who, according to the Ukrainian Institute of Mass Information, have died while in the country this year although not necessarily while they were at work. She particularly remembered a friend who died while asleep in her bed when a rocket hit.
Malchevska’s own home was bombed on the second day of the war and her mother was supposed to be there, “but luckily she was not”. She told colleagues at the BBC she may be overwhelmed as her “home” had been hit and believes they initially thought she was speaking figuratively about her home country and city. “But it was literally my flat,” she said. She saw images of her bombed apartment building live on-air – but also thankfully received confirmation that her family was safe.
Malchevska said: “I’m extremely grateful to all our British colleagues, all the British journalists covering this story, when I was not able to say anything, when I had to stop at some point, and you guys, you carried on. With your bravery, with your fight for truth and justice, with your hearts, thank you very much for doing this. And thank you very much for all the support.
“When I was deployed back home to cover the war in my home and to report from the frontline near Kharkiv and when I was doing those lives and filming reports and interviewing people – hearing the shelling in the background and trying not to think that actually it’s my reality, it’s my life, which I’m living constantly, it was quite difficult to put the distance and you helped me to do that. My amazing British crew, my colleagues, helped me to carry on, helped me to put a distance… and to stay impartial.
“Because it is very important to stay impartial even when your home is being bombed. Thank you very much for your incredible fight for justice, truth and impartiality.”
The public service prize last year was posthumously awarded to ITV News editor Geoff Hill, who died months earlier from leukaemia aged 52. The inaugural award in 2020 went to the Daily Mail for its Mail Force campaign to provide NHS staff and care workers with PPE.
Press Gazette has collated the names of more than 100 journalists, including anchors, reporters and photographers, for UK media outlets who have reported from Ukraine since February. These were shown on a screen to the awards ceremony audience, and are listed below.
Press Gazette approached each of the news outlets named, as well as several others who declined to comment or did not respond, for the list. Those declining to comment cited security concerns and practical issues around identifying everyone involved in their on-the-ground Ukraine coverage: Sky News, for example, noted that it has had upward of 80 people in the country over the course of the invasion.
However, if we have missed you or someone who should be added to the list, please email bron.maher@ns-mediagroup.com and additions will be made where appropriate.
BBC News
- Clive Myrie
- Lyse Doucet
- Orla Guerin
- Sarah Rainsford
- Nick Robinson
- Nick Beake
- Paul Adams
- Marta Shokalo
- Reeta Chakrabarti
- Tim Franks
- Fergal Keane
- James Waterhouse
- Jeremy Bowen
- Quentin Sommerville
- Kate Peters
- Yalda Hakim
- Andrew Harding
- Hugo Bachega
- Abdujalil Abdurasulov
- Zhanna Bezpiatchuk
- Emma Vardy
- Anna Foster
Sky News
In common with other outlets on this list, Sky said the names it provided represented only “some of the 85 reporters, presenters, camera operators, engineers and producers, including Ukrainian staff, who have worked inside the country for Sky News over the last year”.
- Mark Austin
- Stuart Ramsay
- John Sparks
- Deborah Haynes
- Alex Rossi
- Alex Crawford
- Dominic Waghorn
- Alistair Bunkall
- Gillian Joseph
- Anna Botting
- Richie Mockler
- Dominique van Heerden
- Martin Vowles
The Times and Sunday Times
- Christina Lamb
- Anthony Loyd
- Catherine Philp
- Jack Hill
- Louise Callaghan
- Richard Spencer
- Sofia Barbarani
- Richard Lloyd Parry
- Marc Bennetts
- Max Tucker
- Askold Krushnelycky
- Alistair Dawber
- Charlie Faulkner
The Sun
- Jerome Starkey
- Paul Sims
- Nick Parker
- Chris Eades
- Stephen Moyes
- Oliver Harvey
- Doug Seeburg
- Peter Jordan
Daily Mail
- Ian Birrell
- Richard Pendlebury
- Jamie Wiseman
- Kate Baklitskaya
- James Franey
- Andy Jehring
- Harriet Line
- Mark Large
Mail on Sunday
- Ian Gallagher
- Michael Powell
- Kiran Ridley
Mail Online
- Nick Craven
- Nick Fagge
- Tim Clarke
- Simon Ashton
Mail titles (freelances and fixers)
- Oleh Tereschenko
- Omelyan Oshchudlyak
- Yura Dankevich
- Olex Kostiuchenko
- Olga Podorozhna
- Serhii who drove for the Mail staff
The Telegraph
- James Rothwell
- Roland Oliphant
- Colin Freeman
- Tanya Kozyreva
- Simon Townsely
- Ben Farmer
- Julian Simmonds
Financial Times
- John Reed
- Polina Ivanova
- Roman Olearchyk
- Guy Chazan
- Tim Judah
The Guardian and The Observer
- Emma Graham-Harrison
- Luke Harding
- Lorenzo Tondo
- Isobel Koshiw
- Peter Beaumont
- Dan Sabbagh
- Daniel Boffey
- Shaun Walker
- Julian Borger
- Charlotte Higgins
- Bethan McKernan
- Artem Mazhulin
- Alessio Mamo
- Ed Ram
Daily Mirror and Daily Express
- Andy Lines
- Andy Stenning
- Chris Hughes
- Rowan Griffiths
ITV News
- Rohit Kachroo
- James Mates
- Dan Rivers
- John Irvine
- Natalie Wright
- Dan Howells
- Lutfi Abu-Aun
- John Angier
The New Statesman
- Alix Kroeger
- Paul Mason
- Bruno Maçães
Channel 4 News
- Lindsey Hilsum
- Matt Frei
- Krishnan Guru-Murthy
5 News
- Tessa Chapman
- Zoe Kalus
- Adam Boyle
- Julian Druker
The Economist
- Oliver Carroll
- Zanny Minton Beddoes
The Independent
- Kim Sengupta
- Bel Trew
Freelance
- Liz Cookman
- John Sweeney
- Oz Katerji
- Antonia Cundy
Vice
- Matthew Cassel
- Ben Solomon
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- David Parsley
TalkTV
- Piers Morgan
Buzzfeed
- Christopher Miller
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