The Public Service Award was given to the Daily Mail on behalf of Mail Force for our campaign to supply PPE at the height of the Covid-19 crisis.
The judges said: “There are few news organisations in the world which can rival the Daily Mail for campaigning verve and sheer chutzpah when it takes on an issue. At a time when it felt like the country, and the newspaper industry, was on its knees the Mail showed that journalism can do far more than just expose problems and shortcomings – it can channel its energy towards providing solutions, in this case in dramatic and potentially life-saving fashion.”
Launched in 2012, the British Journalism Awards were the first major UK journalism awards to make serving the public interest its main criteria. 80 judges spent three weeks reading more than 800 entries to come up with the shortlists for each award category. They then met via Zoom to conduct judging sessions where they discussed the submitted work and arrived at a consensus view on the finalists.
Mail Force was also Highly Commended for the Campaign of the Year award with the following comments from the judges:
“This campaign was all about action, not words. They raised the money, rented the aircraft, picked up the PPE and distributed it. This was a jaw-dropping campaign which left the rest of Fleet Street standing at a time when help was urgently needed for the NHS. Above and beyond the call of journalism.”
