Sun Baby P campaign misses out on award

The Times has won the ‘campaign of the year’ category at the British Press Awards, keeping The Sun’s Baby P coverage off the top spot. The result follows Community Care’s campaign against The Sun’s entry.

Community Care wrote to the 81 awards judges, nine sponsors and Channel 4 news frontman Jon Snow, who hosted the presentation ceremony, to urge them not to support The Sun’s entry. We also asked readers to have their say by writing to the chair of the judges.

The protest was part of Community Care’s Stand Up Now for Social Work campaign, which calls for fair reporting of social work in the media and support from government and employers to improve public perceptions of the profession.

The winning entry was a campaign about the family court system by Camilla Cavendish, published in The Times. The Sun also missed out on second place, which went to Sarah Kate Templeton’s ‘Right to Pay’ campaign in The Sunday Times, which focused on cancer patients who chose to ‘top up’ NHS treatment by paying for additional drugs.

“We’re delighted that the judges saw sense and didn’t reward The Sun for its irresponsible reporting,” said Community Care editor Bronagh Miskelly. “I do have some concerns about The Times’ campaign. But its 10 point plan for the reform of the family court system does have some merit – and the coverage was the polar opposite to The Sun’s.”

The results of the awards, which are run by journalists’ newspaper the Press Gazette, were announced at a black-tie reception at a london hotel on 31 March. Unison, which is supporting the Stand Up Now campaign, invited Community Care’s deputy editor Emma Maier to attend the awards to meet a senior Sun journalist. Read about it on the Social Work blog.

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