12 December 2017: Last night, the FT’s Middle East correspondent, Erika Solomon, won the highly coveted Marie Colvin award at the 2017 Press Gazette British Journalism Awards.
The award was launched in memory of the late Sunday Times foreign correspondent, Marie Colvin, who was killed reporting on the plight of people in the besieged Syrian city of Homs in 2012.
The judges noted that Erika “approaches her subjects with the same humane curiosity as Marie did… bringing out through subtle observation and understatement the way that people cope in the most terrible circumstances.”
They praised her reports for being “strong, original” and showing “huge bravery” adding “this is foreign reporting at its best.”
Last year, Solomon was named International journalist of the year at the One World Media Awards 2016 and honoured at the Overseas Press Club Awards 2016 for her investigative reporting and feature series, “Isis, Inc”. She was also awarded the FT’s Jones-Mauthner prize for excellence in international reporting.
FT reporter, Paul McClean, who sadly passed away in September, was highly commended in the New Journalist of the Year category for his reporting on Brexit.
The judges said: “Paul McClean produced some outstanding exclusives for the Financial Times and was a journalist with huge potential which tragically will not now be realised. The British Journalism Awards judges would like to salute him and pay tribute to his memory.”
The British Journalism Awards, now in their sixth year, recognise exceptional journalism in the public’s interest. You can find the full list of winners here.
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