The Law Society has announced the winners of the 2021 Justice Media Awards, after the online awards ceremony today (24 June).
The top award was presented to Mark Horgan (pictured, right) and Ciarán Cassidy (left) for their Second Captains production for BBC Sounds, ‘Where is George Gibney?’.
The judges described the podcast, which looked at the child-abuse allegations surrounding one of Ireland’s most famous swimming coaches, as “an extraordinary listen”. It also won the top prize in the ‘Broadcast Journalism (Radio/Podcast – National)’ category.
First student winners
This podcast series was selected from 200 entries – received from over 130 journalists – to win the overall award. In total, 39 awards and merits were presented across 12 categories, including four prizes in a new category, ‘Best Student Journalism’.
Louise Kennedy of The College Tribune, University College Dublin, made history as the first winner in this category for her article, ‘Explaining the law surrounding sexual assault and consent’.
President of the Law Society James Cahill said that it was critically important to continue to recognise, reward and support excellence in legal journalism.
“This year, many of our entries focused on giving a voice to the victims of crime and letting them share their story in their own words. This theme is strongly reflected by our overall award winner this year,” Mr Cahill said.
Award for section 252 analysis
Jenny Friel of the Irish Daily Mail took the award in the ‘Print/Online Journalism (Daily)’ category for her piece examining the section 252 legislation that banned the identification of child murder victims.
In the ‘Print/Online Journalism (Sunday)’ category, the top prize went to Sarah Taaffe-Maguire of the Business Post for ‘Landmark verdicts: Female leaders on court cases that shaped the modern world’.
Aidan O’Connor of Kerry’s Eye won the award in the ‘Local Journalism’ category for ‘Justice at Last’, which told the story of a woman who was wrongly accused of murdering an infant, in what has become known as the Kerry Babies case.
The ‘Broadcast Journalism (TV/Video)’ award went to Máire Kearney, Mick Peelo and Sheila Ahern of RTÉ 1 Factual, for ‘Breaking the Silence’, which examined the State’s response to questions of justice and accountability for survivors of historical abuse.
The awards for ‘Court Reporting’ went to Francesca Comyn of The Currency (Print/Online), and Frank Greaney of Newstalk (Broadcast).
A full list of winners and citations is available on the Law Society website.