At the 2021 RTS Television Journalism Awards, Sky News proudly collected six awards including Channel of the Year for a fourth year running. On the night, Head of Sky News John Ryley was also awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award for his contribution to news for over 30 years. In his acceptance speech he reflected on his career and championed the importance of accurate, impartial and original journalism. Watch his full speech above, or read below.
"Throughout my career I have always gone on record as saying that Awards of this type are outdated, inappropriately elitist and generally undesirable.
It's amazing how my views have matured over the last couple of weeks.
A huge thank you to the Royal Television Society. Thank you to the jurors - I'm really chuffed.
And thank you to my brilliant colleagues at Sky News who work so very hard around the clock.
Luck - luck has played a massive part in my career since I first walked into the Invicta Radio Newsroom in 1984 with a shiny new degree in Latin. I was able to translate the poems of Lucretius at high speed parse an ablative absolute and count backwards in Latin from a thousand.
But I was not able to type or even pronounce my Rs!
In local radio I learnt the importance of accuracy. I was lucky to have worked at the BBC in the late 1980s where I learnt the importance of impartiality.
I was lucky to have worked on ITV's News at Ten in the early 1990s where l learnt about the power of distinctive eye-witness reporting.
I have been lucky to have worked at Sky where I've learnt about the importance of challenging the status quo.
I hope that Sky News today is living proof that the proper role of any serious news organisation is not just to report the news but to analyse it too.
The biggest lesson that I have learned is this;
It's not the strongest or the most intelligent that succeeds but those prepared to adapt and change.
Innovate... or perish.
And - wow - does our news industry need to change to reflect modern Britain.
Look at the black and Asian people nominated tonight at these awards. We all have more work still to do.
This is not just about changing who is on the TV screen. Its also about changing the people who make the decisions behind the scenes.
Luck - in television journalism - still too often favours the white and middle class.
Young people from ethnic minorities need far more than only luck to succeed.
They need advice, support and opportunity to get on in our trade.
And they need our respect.
Respect for the new ideas and new skills they can offer us.
So please give it to them.
I will end by thanking two special people who made a fundamental difference to my career.
The first special person is the founder of Sky, Rupert Murdoch.
I thank him for investing in high quality news and current affairs in the United Kingdom more than 30 years ago and for demonstrating that public service journalism cannot be left solely to the public service broadcasters.
The second special person to thank is Harriet Ryley my wife who died last winter.
I thank her for enabling me to pursue my career over the past 37 years while she, a more capable individual than me, put her career second.
So tonight I dedicate this award to all those who keep the home fires burning enabling us to go to work to focus on what we all must cherish - accurate, impartial. original journalism."
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
07/07/2026
Applications are now open for the Validation Booster, a six-month acceleration programme supporting journalists, media organisations, content creators, media in...
07/07/2026
New mixer aimed squarely at instrument-level sources
Heritage Audio have clearly been busy recently, as alongside their all-new Tubestrip, they've also ...
07/07/2026
New channel strip combines popular hardware designs
The latest arrival to the Heritage Audio line-up brings together a selection of their praised hardware d...
07/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
07/07/2026
UKTV commission with BritBox and Sony Pictures Television and inspired by Deborah Cadbury's book, Chocolate Wars
The six-part series is produced by Fable P...
07/07/2026
Tuesday 7 July 2026
Record audiences tune into the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 on Sky Sports
The ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 was the most watche...
07/07/2026
Tuesday 7 July 2026
Official trailer released for Fightland, a revenge drama fr...
07/07/2026
Wuppertal July 7, 2026
Riedel and ARRI Bring Cinematic Live Production to the Eurovision Song ContestRiedel Communications and ARRI played a key role in one o...
07/07/2026
To Whom It Concerns RT today confirmed that Patrick Kielty is to extend his contract as host of The Late Late Show.
Last season, the world's longest-runn...
06/07/2026
Bundle gains 100 new synths & more
Synth Anthology 5 the largest and most feature-packed edition of UVI's hardware synth emulation bundle, bringing toge...
06/07/2026
Available now via free firmware update
MOTU have just announced that three of their popular audio interfaces now boast official Milan Certification. The 16A...
06/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Co...
06/07/2026
The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the ...
06/07/2026
Monday 6 July 2026
Sky Kids unveils new slate for 2026 including Paris Hilton&#...
06/07/2026
Monday 6 July 2026
Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a ...
06/07/2026
Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...
06/07/2026
A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained
What happened to Ke...
05/07/2026
Browser-based and desktop apps available
Digital Sunset Studios have been busy working on an interesting project: a free software tool that provides compute...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
** MEDIA ALERT **
BLEACH: THOUSAND-YEAR BLOOD WAR THE CALAMITY Continues I...
04/07/2026
** MEDIA ALERT **
VIZ Media Unveils New Anime Slate at Anime Expo 2026 with ...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
** MEDIA ALERT **
VIZ Media Celebrates Anime Expo 2026 with BLACK TORCH Worl...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Thursday 2 July 2026
Tea with Judi Dench returns to Sky Arts with legendary guest, Sir Ian McKellen
Sky today confirms Tea with Judi Dench will return this su...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
Our SD10T was an absolutely rock-solid, stable console and the Quantum 338T has been the perfect upgrade, Hurley says. Having multiple screens is a big advant...
01/07/2026
LEXINGTON, Kentucky - July 2026 -Tyler Childers' seventh and latest studio record, Snipe Hunter, is an adventurously sprawling collection of tunes that span...
01/07/2026
** MEDIA ALERT **
BLEACH Comes to Life in Los Angeles with First-of-Its-Kind...
01/07/2026
UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July.
Matt will take on this senio...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
01/07/2026
Nectar360, the Retail Media, Loyalty and Insights business of the Sainsburys Gro...
01/07/2026
9.2 million streams on RT Player between 11 and 28 June
Reach of 2.9 million viewers during Group stages of FIFA World Cup on RT 2
23 million video views acr...
At the 2021 RTS Television Journalism Awards, Sky News proudly collected six awards including Channel of the Year for a fourth year running. On the night, Head of Sky News John Ryley was also awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award for his contribution to news for over 30 years. In his acceptance speech he reflected on his career and championed the importance of accurate, impartial and original journalism. Watch his full speech above, or read below.
