Nick Davies
The Guardian
Phone hacking at the News of the World
IN July 2009 the Guardian published a front-page story which began to disclose the well-concealed truth about an extraordinary scandal. Since then, it has published a string of stories revealing internal paperwork from the News of the World. The rest of Fleet Street has continued to ignore the story.
The original story reached back to a one-day court hearing in January 2007 in which one private investigator and one journalist admitted to illegally intercepting the voicemail messages of eight people. This version had been endorsed by the Murdoch newspaper group who employed the journalist; by the Metropolitan police; by the Press Complaints Commission; and by the then editor of the offending paper, Andy Coulson, who had announced his complete ignorance of this “rogue reporter’s behaviour”.
But the Guardian disclosed that the News of the World had just paid out more than £1m to suppress a legal action which had threatened to reveal that a series of private investigators had been hired by Murdoch journalists to use illegal methods against thousands of public figures – a picture of systematic crime which had escaped the notice of the Murdoch Group, the police, the PCC and Andy Coulson, who was by now working for the leadership of the Conservative party.
Back to Paul Foot 2011 » The Paul Foot Award 2025
The Paul Foot Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism 2025 is now accepting submissions. The Award was set up in memory of revered investigative journalist Paul Foot, who died in 2004.
The winning entry will be awarded £8,000 at an Awards Ceremony on 20th May 2025.
Download the Entry Form here [PDF]
Entries to be received by 1pm on Tuesday 4th March 2025. The closing date for entries is final, no extension can be offered. Submissions received after the closing date will not be eligible for entry.
Entries should be submitted as PDFs by EMAIL only to: awards@private-eye.co.uk marked THE PAUL FOOT AWARD 2025.
No entries will be accepted by post.
Entry Details
Submissions will be accepted for material that has been published in a newspaper or magazine in the UK, or on a website, between 1st April 2024 and 4th March 2025. No broadcast material is eligible. Individual journalists, teams of journalists or entire publications may enter and entries will be considered for anything from single pieces to entire campaigns. Journalists are welcome to enter more than one campaign, but each campaign needs to be submitted using a separate entry form. Maximum of 2 entries.
Please submit all relevant material (including a covering letter, which should be no longer than two A4 pages, typed and providing an overview of your campaign, eg brief history/context, key challenges, key milestones etc). Please return this form with your submission. Copies of articles should be in the format the articles originally appeared (either in print or online). If your campaign featured regularly throughout the year, you are not required to submit every story that was published – we would suggest sending in copies of a selection of key coverage that highlights campaign milestones, and listing the other stories that appeared on an A4 sheet, with the date on which they were published.
Queries
Queries should be directed to:
Anna Zanetti
Midas PR
Tel: 0758 312 7515
Email: Anna.Zanetti@midaspr.co.uk
