This week – a bit to my surprise – I found myself given an accolade by Press Gazette as one of the 50 top reporters on social media. Given I use to tweets to promote stories on this blog and on Exaro News I was quite chuffed to say the least.
But I was even more pleased that the winner was Peter Jukes who rightly deserved his award for his marathon tweeting of the hacking trial – now over 300,000 tweets- and his persistence and innovation in raising cash to do this through crowd sourcing.
This seems to me an excellent use of Twitter and social media to provide bite sized reporting from the courts of a controversial trial as it happens. It is even more remarkable given the dangers of contempt and the difficulties of producing fast, accurate copy under pressure. So hats off to him!
As for the rest I was in good company with two top awards going to Channel Four News- Alex Thomson and Faisal Islam, one to Lucy Manning at ITN News and one to the hyperactive Paul Waugh, the editor of Politics Home.
It was good to see the spread of the awards – which covered virtually the entire political team at The Sun, to Paul Lewis of the Guardian as well as a bevy of sports reporters from the Guardian to the Northern Echo and Daily Telegraph. and a very interesting runner-up Alexandra Rucki from the London Evening Standard.
Well done Press Gazette for an interesting innovation – the new media is definitely the way forward.
Author Archives: davidhencke
Phone Hacking Trial: Reporter: Coulson knew about MI6 buggings – Martin Hickman
An extraordinary disclosure about Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World, being told by Clive Goodman that he got MI6 intercepts
Day 88: Andy Coulson, the News of the World’s then editor, was alleged by a senior journalist to have been part of a criminal plot to receive information covertly obtained from MI6 wire tappings, the phone hacking trial heard today.
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Phone Hacking Trial: News of the World exec: I helped ‘phone hacker’ out of duty – Martin Hickman
The kind side of Stuart Kuttner helping Goodman as he reels from the shock of phone hacking and his arrest
Day 87: A senior News of the World executive lent his personal support to a reporter arrested for phone hacking because he and News International liked to help senior staff in difficulty, he told the Old Bailey today.
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Phone Hacking Trial: Kuttner, I would have told royal reporter to “clear off – Martin Hickman
So Stuart Kuttner proposed a 50 per cent cut to the £100,000 a year paid to phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire and can’t remember why it was rejected. Interesting!
Day 86, Part 3:
Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, told a court today that he would have told any reporter asking to bribe police “
to clear off
.”
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Phone Hacking Trial: Kuttner, I may have spoken to phone hacker – Martin Hickman
Fascinating that the managing editor can’t exactly remember whether he spoke to phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire who received over £1m from News International.
Day 86, Part 1:
Stuart Kuttner may have spoken on the phone to the News of the World’s phone hacking specialist Glenn Mulcaire, he told the Old Bailey today.
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Police examine 33 new boxes of files in Rochdale child sex abuse scandal
Child abuser Sir Cyril Smith at 1990 Liberal Democrat conference. pic credit: PA News Photo via Huffington Post
Expect major new revelations about child sex abuse in Rochdale around the late paedophile Mp Sir Cyril Smith as the police examine 33 boxes of new evidence uncovered from Knowl View Special school.
A report in Exaro News by my colleague Nick Fielding warns that the files now being examined by the police could provide further horrendous disclosures surrounding child sexual abuse in the town. Although the police abandoned an investigation in Cyril Smith they are now investigating complaints of child sexual abuse involving the school committed by other people at the time.
The investigation comes as a new book by Labour MP Simon Danzcuk, the MP for Rochdale will be published this month which will look at Cyril Smith’s career and connections.
Far from going away it looks like that further revelations will show just like the Jimmy Savile affair, Cyril Smith was able to get away with his appalling predatory career without any hindrance or intervention from people who should have known better.
Phone Hacking Trial: Charlie Brooks once drank pint of washing up liquid, Old Bailey hears – Martin Hickman
A whole new advertising campaign is now available to Fairy Liquid courtesy of Charlie Brooks – the gentle washing up liquid that clears the inner stains on your character as well as your dishes!
Day 85, Part 1:
Rebekah Brooks’s husband once drank a pint of washing up liquid, the Old Bailey heard today. In one of the most unexpected anecdotes at the phone hacking trial, Mr Brooks’s friend Sarah Bradstock recalled that one day she had found him “frothing at the mouth”.
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Phone Hacking Trial: alleged conspiracy pizza “probably” large Italian Supreme, with extra garlic bread – Martin Hickman
Revealed : The Pizza in Pizzagate
Day 85, Part 2:
The pizza at the centre of an alleged conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie was probably a Large Italian Supreme with an extra portion of garlic bread, the Old Bailey heard today.
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Walking Up The Richest Mountain Temple In The World
This is an extraordinary vibrant description of a Buddhist pilgrimage up a mountain off the beaten track on the Thai Cambodia border and a remarkable piece of travel journalism. I would warn you the videos are pretty noisy but the scenes it portrayed give an insight into another world far removed from the West. So far removed he is the only Westerner there. I have reblogged it as a unique description of an entirely different way of life and values and for painting an alternative view of touristy Thailand. The blogger, a Swede, is a one off as well!
Phone Hacking Trial: News International admin assistant stowed Charlie Brooks’s bag under her desk, court hears – Martin Hickman
The story of Charlie Brooks’ missing bag stowed under a News International desk
Day 84, Part 2:
A News International administration assistant helped place a bag belonging to Charlie Brooks into two bin bags and stowed the property under her desk at the newspaper group’s HQ for hours while Mr Brooks’s wife Rebekah was under arrest, a court heard today.
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Westminster Confidential 