British Press Awards 2006

The British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that has celebrated the best of British journalism since the 1970s. A financially lucrative part of the Press Gazette's business, they have been described as "the Oscars of British journalism", or less flatteringly, "The Hackademy Awards".

The British Press Awards 2006 were held at The Dorchester, Park Lane, London, on Monday 20 March 2006. Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow hosted the revamped ceremony with just 450 guests attending compared with more than 900 in previous years. There were 21 categories with a single overall sponsor rather than the 28 categories with individual sponsors of 2005.

The judging process has two stages with Charles Wilson as Chairman of the Judges. The first stage chooses five entries (or six in case of a tie for fifth place) for the shortlists of each category and the second stage determines the winners. The Supplement of the Year, Cartoonist of the Year and Front Page of the Year categories are judged by independent panels of experts. Newspaper of the Year is now judged on an Academy-style voting system. The judging forum comprises 80 senior staff journalists and a Grand Jury of 20 non-affiliated senior media executives representing each of the national newspaper groups.

Soon after the 2005 awards, ten editors of major newspapers released a joint statement announcing their boycott because of the 'decline in conduct and prestige'. The statement read, "The editors of The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, The Independent, the Independent on Sunday, the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Mail, and the Mail on Sunday believe the organisation of these awards brings little credit to the industry or to the newspapers who win them". The New York Times's London correspondent wrote, "last night's ceremony — a mind-numbing parade of awards in 28 categories — was not a mutually respectful celebration of the British newspaper industry fuelled by camaraderie and bonhomie. It was more like a soccer match attended by a club of misanthropic inebriates".Piers Morgan, unhappy about losing the Hugh Cudlipp Award to The Sun, launched “The REAL Newspaper of the Year Awards”, inviting Mirror readers to phone in their choice.

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