The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, named for the war correspondent, Martha Gellhorn, was established in 1999 by the Martha Gellhorn Trust. The Trust is a UK-registered charity. The award is founded on the following principles:

The award will be for the kind of reporting that distinguished Martha: in her own words "the view from the ground". This is essentially a human story that penetrates the established version of events and illuminates an urgent issue buried by prevailing fashions of what makes
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
. We would expect the winner to tell an unpalatable truth, validated by powerful facts, that exposes establishment conduct and its propaganda, or "official drivel", as Martha called it. The subjects can be based in this country or abroad.

The prize is awarded annually to

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

s writing in English whose work has appeared in print or in a reputable internet publication.

Alexander Matthews Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

was the chair of the Martha Gellhorn Trust Prize Committee in 2011. According to its website, the prize committee includes James Fox,

Jeremy Harding Jeremy Harding (born 1952) is a British writer and journalist, based in the south of France. Life and work Harding was born in London, where he was placed for adoption at 11 days old by his Irish mother. He grew up in West London. He tells the st ...

, Cynthia Kee, Sandy Matthews, Shirlee Matthews and

John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. Pilger ...

Previous winners

*1999: Nick Davies (''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'') *2000:

(''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'') *2001: Geoffrey Lean (''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'') *2002: Robert Fisk (''

'') *2003:

Chris McGreal Chris McGreal is a reporter for ''The Guardian''. He is the author of ''American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts'' published by Public Affairs in the US and Guardian Faber in the UK. Career McGreal is a foreign correspondent for ''Th ...

(''

'') *2004: Patrick Cockburn (''

'') *2005: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (''

'');

Jonathan Steele Jonathan Steele may refer to: *Jonathan Steele (journalist), British journalist and author * Jonathan Steele (comics), the comic book series * Jonny Steele, footballer See also *Jon Steel Jon Steel , full name Jonathan Steel (born 14 March 19 ...

(''

'') received a special award for his distinguished career as a reporter. *2006:

Hala Jaber Hala Jaber is a Lebanese-British journalist. She was born in West Africa and writes for ''The Sunday Times''. Work Her first book, ''Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance'', was published in 1997. The book describes the rise and political agenda of ...

(''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'') and Michael Tierney (''

The Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'') *2007: *2008: Dahr Jamail (unembedded,

Inter Press Service Inter Press Service (IPS) is a global news agency headquartered in Rome, Italy. Its main focus is news and analysis about social, political, civil, and economic subjects as it relates to the Global South, civil society and globalization. Hist ...

, IPS) and Mohammed Omer (unembedded, Inter Press Service, IPS) *2009:

Ian Cobain Ian Cobain (born 1960) is a British journalist. Cobain is best known for his investigative journalism into human rights abuses committed by the British government post-9/11, the secrecy surrounding the British state and the legacy of the Norther ...

(''

'') for the prize, and Marie Colvin (''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'') for the "Martha Gellhorn Special Award for Journalism" *2010:

Johann Hari Johann Eduard Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a British-Swiss writer and journalist who has written for ''The Independent'' and ''The Huffington Post''. In 2011, Hari was suspended from ''The Independent'' and later resigned, after admitting to ...

(''

'') *2011:

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...

(

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...

) for the prize, and

Umar Cheema Umar Cheema ( ur, ) is an investigative reporter for the Pakistani newspaper '' The News''. In 2008, he won a Daniel Pearl Journalism Fellowship, becoming the first Pearl fellow to work at ''The New York Times''. He also attended London School of ...

, Charles Clover, and

Jonathan Cook Jonathan Cook (born 1965) is a British writer and a freelance journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, who writes about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He writes a regular column for '' The National'' of Abu Dhabi and Middle East Eye. Backgro ...

for the "Martha Gellhorn Special Award for Journalism" *2012: Gareth Porter (

, IPS) *2013: Chris Woods, Alice Ross and Jack Serle (

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

) *2014:

Iona Craig Iona Craig (born 1976) is a British-Irish freelance journalist. Since 2010 her reporting has focused on Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula. Career Craig was raised in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, and attended City University in London. Previou ...

(Freelance:

Al Jazeera America Al Jazeera America was an American pay television news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network. The channel was launched on August 20, 2013, to compete with CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News, and in certain markets RT America. It was Al Jazeera' ...

, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'') *2015: not awarded *2016: not awarded *2017: Robert Parry (Freelance: '' Consortium News'')

References

External links

* British journalism awards Awards established in 1999 1999 establishments in the United Kingdom {{journalism-stub