Sky News celebrates five wins at the RTS Television Journalism Awards

Sky News scooped five awards at the Royal Television Society journalism awards ceremony last night in London, including Television Journalist, Daily News Programme, International News Coverage, News Channel and the prestigious Judges' Award.

For an unprecedented fifth time, Alex Crawford, Sky News' Special Correspondent, was named Television Journalist of the Year, an award no other journalist has won more than twice. The award is testament to Alex's professionalism and courage.

On accepting the award, Alex Crawford, said: We're living in extraordinary times. It's a privilege to be able to report it. To be up there is an honour.

The RTS judges praised Alex's work: To win the award of Journalist of the Year always requires something special and never more so than this year. For many months the news was dominated by the astonishing stories of refugees trying to reach Europe. There was outstanding reporting by many top correspondents but none matched the work of this years winner.

Sky also picked up an award for Daily News Programme of the Year for Sky News at Five, beating off competition from Channel 4 News and BBC News at Ten. The award represents the programme's original and compelling packaging, as well as live content, which the judges "commended for carving out a strong and distinct personality within a 24 hour news channel.

Sky News won an International News Coverage award for its investigative journalism, world exclusive and analysis of the Tunisia terror attack last year. The RTS judges said the winner of this category stood out as the best by far on one particular story. Excellent first use of eyewitness video, compelling story-telling, strong background analysis and follow-ups.

For a record tenth time Sky was named News Channel of the Year, beating BBC News and Al Jazeera English. The judges said Sky News had developed still further as a channel, completely professional as ever, covering news as it happened but now also breaking its own exclusive stories, offering more analysis, stand-out reporting and innovative coverage of special events.

John Ryley, Head of Sky News, commented on the night's wins: The RTS Awards are the major ceremony in the awards calendar where we are judged by our peers and are up against the toughest competition. Winning five awards this year is a fantastic triumph and testament to our brilliant team at Sky News, for their passion, hard work, and commitment to produce multi-platform coverage, with distinction and originality.

Also recognised at the ceremony was Jackie Faulkner, Sky News' Director of News Operations, who was awarded the prestigious Judges Award. The award celebrates an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of Television Journalism over the course of their career.

John Ryley commended Jackie: For almost forty years in our industry, and at Sky from our first night of broadcast in 1989, Jackie has been a sheer force behind the scenes. She has persuaded rival broadcasters to cooperate on their coverage of wars, revolutions, royal weddings and funerals. Many of the most memorable pictures of our times have been shot as a result of Jackie's negotiations with government spinners, palace officials and church administrators on behalf of every news organisation. She has overseen the constant technical evolution of the operations department at Sky News, driving the introduction of technology that has revolutionised live broadcast and spread well beyond Sky.

The RTS judges praised Jackie as one of: the unsung heroes of our business..who make things happen behind the scenes and without whom nothing much would happen in front.

Sky News was short-listed in a further category for News Technology: UK General Election Screens.

The RTS awards for news and current affairs seek to recognise creative and excellent journalism by organisations whose broadcasts and online video content are transmitted from a UK-based platform or production base. The awards ceremony was held on Wednesday 17 February 2016 in London.

For further information, please contact:

Sky

Sarah El-Hadidy

Sky News PR

sarah.el-hadidy@sky.uk

The full list of Sky News' RTS Awards 2016 are as follows:

Television Journalist of the Year: Alex Crawford

Daily News Programme of the Year: Sky News at Five

News Coverage - International: Tunisia

News Channel of the Year

Judges' Award: Jackie Faulkner

LINK:	https://corporate.sky.com/media-centre/news-page/2016/sky-news-celebra...
	See more stories from sky

Most recent headlines