The Guardian-owning Scott Trust appears to be pressing ahead with plans to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media.

The 12-person board of the Trust, which is a non-profit-making company, met on Monday 25 November to discuss a bid made by Tortoise Media to acquire The Observer.

Tortoise has funding of £20m to invest in turning the Observer into a standalone newspaper with a paywalled website.

Following yesterday’s all-day meeting of the Trust a spokesperson said: “Today the Scott Trust met to discuss the potential sale of the Observer and the proposed terms.

“Talks continue to progress and there are a few outstanding points. All parties will continue detailed discussions to ensure the proposed agreement is the best it can be for staff, readers and the future of liberal journalism.”

The Trust has said it may keep a stake in The Observer after its sale to Tortoise and the Financial Times has reported that it may also offer additional investment in the new Tortoise/Observer business.

The ongoing talks mean strike action in protest at the Observer-Tortoise deal is still set to go ahead with the first 48-hour strike from Guardian and Observer journalists set to take place on Wednesday 4 December.

The Scott Trust has been sent a series of questions about the Observer deal by a consortium of press freedom groups which has asked for written answers.

These include: “Why is the sale of The Observer being discussed only with one preferred bidder instead of through an open, transparent and fair process?”

And: “What is the Scott Trust’s responsibility if this [the Tortoise Media] plan fails?”

The 70 Observer journalists who would transfer across to Tortoise have concerns about job security and editorial independence.

Tortoise Media said yesterday: “We want to save The Observer, both for today’s readers and the generation to come. We have heard from a lot of Observer journalists who are excited about our ambition for the paper – and the people we bring with digital skills in podcasts, data journalism and newsletters, the investment that means new staff jobs, a much bigger editorial budget and a real plan for growth.

“We believe we can strengthen liberal journalism, adding to the range and reach of progressive voices; we can enable The Observer to reach new readers, as a Sunday newspaper with a digital life of its own; and we can renew the paper as a powerful voice in the world.”

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The chair of the Scott Trust has offered to meet a consortium of press freedom groups which has raised concerns over the sale of The Observer.

The board of the Trust, a limited company which owns Guardian Media Group, was expected to meet on Monday 25 November, to discuss proposals to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media.

With Guardian and Observer journalists set to hold a 48-hour strike on 4 December in protest at the deal, the Trust is under pressure to make a decision.

The Scott Trust has received a letter co-signed by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, the European Federation of Journalists, Index on Censorship, International Press Institute and OBC Transeuropa demanding answers to six key questions about the sale of The Observer.

Tortoise Media is believed to have funding of £20m to invest in turning The Observer into a stand-alone newspaper and paywalled website. According to the FT, The Scott Trust may also provide additional investment in the deal and the body has already said it plans to retain a stake in The Observer.

The letter sent by the press freedom groups to the Trust and Tortoise Media asks the following questions:

“The Observer is the leading liberal, progressive Sunday newspaper in the UK. Given the Scott Trust’s commitment to safeguarding freedom of the press and liberal journalism, what protections will be included in any deal to protect its editorial independence?

“What safeguards regarding future ownership will be written into the sale?”

The groups also asked a question about whether the Trust has properly vetted all the potential investors, including looking at foreign business links.

The letter says: “Individuals we spoke to described Tortoise’s business plan as ‘unconvincing’ and ‘seriously under-financed’. What is the Scott Trust’s responsibility if this plan fails? Are any safeguards being included in the deal?

“Why is the sale of The Observer being discussed only with one preferred bidder instead of through an open, transparent and fair process?

“Will you allow Observer and Guardian staff to speak out freely about the impact of the deal on press freedom and UK media plurality without fear of sanction or recrimination? At present, they report being unable to voice their opinions freely or have been warned against doing so.”

Scott Trust chair Ole Jacob Sunde has written back to the groups saying: “Thank you for your letter and the questions that you raise. We will happily respond to your points. Perhaps, in the first instance, we could arrange a call so I can better understand your concerns.

“As you will know, The Guardian has been a partner to your organisations on various vital journalistic endeavours – including the anti-SLAPPS coalition. We hope you know us to share values on many areas in the media landscape.

“We take our obligations to safeguarding the future of liberal journalism very seriously and would welcome you sharing more about where you believe there’s misalignment.”

Press Gazette understands the groups have asked for written answers and cannot offer a meeting until early December.

Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr has been told by Guardian management that her public statements about the proposed Observer deal may be in breach of her contract and has been ask to “desist” from saying anything publicly which brings Guardian News and Media “into disrepute”.

Cadwalladr was the keynote speaker on Friday 23 November at a Malta conference on media freedom run by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe during which she denounced the sale of The Observer to Tortoise as an “existential threat to our journalism”.

A spokesperson for Tortoise Media said: “We want to save The Observer, both for today’s readers and the generation to come. We have heard from a lot of Observer journalists who are excited about our ambition for the paper – and the people we bring with digital skills in podcasts, data journalism and newsletters, the investment that means new staff jobs, a much bigger editorial budget and a real plan for growth.

“We believe we can strengthen liberal journalism, adding to the range and reach of progressive voices; we can enable The Observer to reach new readers, as a Sunday newspaper with a digital life of its own; and we can renew the paper as a powerful voice in the world.”

On the subject of the letter, Tortoise said: “We have not received a letter from these bodies, but we are happy to provide assurances on editorial independence. All of our investors are fully committed to the robust principles of editorial freedom that are enshrined in our articles of association and overseen by an independent editorial board chaired by former FT editor Richard Lambert.”

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Observer writer Carole Cadwalladr has denounced plans to sell the title to Tortoise Media at an international conference on press freedom – despite being told to “desist” by management after previous public statements about the deal

Cadwalladr is one of few serving Guardian or Observer journalists to have spoken out publicly about the proposal to transfer the title and its 70 staff to Tortoise Media despite widespread opposition. Some 93% of Guardian and Observer journalists voted in favour of strike action in protest at the deal this week.

The podcast publisher says it has £20m to invest in turning The Observer into a standalone newspaper with a paywalled website. But Cadwalladr and many other Guardian staff feel the deal puts the future of the title in jeopardy.

Cadwalladr, who is on a freelance contract with The Observer, was written to by management after appearing on the Media Confidential podcast hosted by former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger earlier this month.

Press Gazette understands she has been accused of disparaging colleagues and the company and of making inaccurate statements. Cadwalladr said she denies disparaging anyone and said no detail has been given about alleged inaccuracies.

All Observer and Guardian journalists are required to adhere to the GNM editorial code which states: “It is important that outside interests do not come into conflict with journalists’ work for GNM in any way that could compromise, or appear to compromise, the editorial integrity and reputation of individual journalists or GNM”. Freelance contributors are required to sign a contract which states: “You shall not at any time do anything to bring GNM’s brands, trademarks or reputation into disrepute”.

Cadwalladr was told that it was third occasion she had breached company ruleswith recent public statements and been asked to “desist”.

But Cadwalladr told Press Gazette: “I’ve decided that my loyalty lies with the readers of The Observer.”

Cadwalladr was the keynote speaker today (Friday 22 November) at a Malta conference on media freedom run by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

New age of ‘politically motivated witch hunts’

She warned that the US “is entering a new age of politically motivated witch hunts that will look like McCarthyism on steroids” in her address.

And she spoke about her legal fight with political donor Arron Banks which left her with a £1.2m costs bill.

She said: “The biggest political donor in UK history didn’t sue the Guardian, instead, he came after me as an individual. He waited for me to repeat a line from a Guardian article in a talk, and he sued me for that.

“It was clever and deliberate and designed to silence and intimidate me. To isolate me from my news organisation. And to silence and intimidate all journalism into him. And it worked.

“And this, I have no doubt, is a playbook that will be deployed against other journalists.

“It wasn’t just that the lawsuit tied me up for years in litigation and led to years of stress and fear, it also became a central weapon in an online harassment and abuse campaign against me. Every court report led to a new wave of attacks. It was like being trapped in a washing machine, a spin cycle of abuse.”

‘Grave threat’ warning over Observer deal

And she went on to tell the conference that her own news organisation “is under grave threat”.

She said: “All of mine and my colleagues’ work is read by a global audience on the Guardian’s website. But in the UK, it also appears in the print edition of The Observer, The Guardian’s Sunday sister newspaper.

“And, as we speak, The Guardian’s board has approved the sale of The Observer – the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world – to a tiny, financially unprofitable podcast company.

“We, the journalists of both The Guardian and The Observer, believe that this is an existential threat to our journalism.

“We believe the company that is seeking to buy us has no track record of success, no business model and insufficient funds. We don’t understand why no alternatives have been considered. We believe that The Guardian is risking the trust of the readers by making such a reckless decision in haste. We believe it is the beginning of the end of our newspaper.

“Now, 93% of us have voted to go on strike.

“I’m telling you this because ownership matters. The British government has previously scrutinised the potential buyers of news organisations and I urge it do so in this case.

“Because the freedom of the press is precious and fragile and when a news organisation dies, it leaves a gaping hole. Politicians go unscrutinised, crimes go unreported, human rights abuses go undocumented.

“If press freedom means anything, it has to mean the ability to speak out to advocate for the survival of our own news organisation. Because if a newspaper is allowed to die, it’s never coming back.

“And at this point, we, the journalists of The Guardian and Observer, believe The Guardian’s management is an active threat to press freedom.

“I’m speaking on behalf of those journalists when I say that we believe its actions are imperilling the survival of a 240-year-old newspaper.”

The Scott Trust, which owns Guardian Media Group, is expected to make a decision in principle over selling The Observer on Monday,

A Guardian spokesperson said: “We recognise the strength of feeling about the proposed sale of the Observer. Our priority is to serve our readers, protect jobs and support our staff, so that the Guardian and the Observer can continue to promote liberal journalism and thrive in a challenging media environment.”

Concluding her speech, Cadwalladr said: “I’ve learned the hard way what happens when journalism comes under attack. I am lucky. I live in a country with strong institutions and rule of law. I faced a civil not a criminal suit. And it still felt like an existential struggle for survival. I’m only now two years on, recovering my psychological and physical health. And I’m ending by telling you this because there is a global witch hunt coming. And what happened to me must not be allowed to happen to other journalists.

“I am just one person. But what I worry is that news organisations will find reasons to not provide financial and other support to their journalists when they come under attack. They will be afraid of the consequences. They will find loopholes and excuses to not do the right thing.

“This is what happened to me. I faced my nightmare alone. But we cannot let that happen to other journalists. Because a threat to one journalist is a threat to all. A threat to one news organisation is a threat to all.

“There is a curtain of darkness that is falling across the world, a blanket of fake news and lies is smothering the truth and we know where that leads. We simply cannot afford to let this happen.”

A source close to The Guardian said: “Carole is a fantastic campaigning journalist and welcome to an opinion but many would respectfully disagree with her that this deal threatens the future of this business – what this about is enabling the Observer to thrive.”

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Jay Rayner, one of The Observer’s most prominent writers, is leaving the newsbrand as controversy surrounds its proposed sale to Tortoise Media.

The news was announced on the same day that Paul Webster, who was editor of The Observer until earlier this month, wrote a lengthy denunciation of the proposed sale, which he said was based on “two false premises”: that the newspaper’s operation poses a financial risk to The Guardian and that Tortoise Media could sustain the brand in print.

A Guardian and Observer staff strike over the proposed sale is set for early next month.

Rayner, who has reviewed restaurants for The Observer for 25 years, said last month that he had been shortlisted for columnist of the year in the BSME Awards “in the same month that The Guardian has told me they will terminate all our contracts if they can sell The Observer to Tortoise”.

Tortoise and Guardian News and Media have previously assured Observer staff that their jobs will be safe if the sale goes ahead.

A spokesperson for Tortoise told Press Gazette contract arrangements like Rayner’s would also be honoured in any deal.

Rayner was previously a vocal campaigner against an unsuccessful bid to merge The Observer into The Guardian in 2008.

A spokesperson for Guardian News and Media said: “Jay Rayner has entertained readers for many years with his writing and we wish him all the best with his new role.”

On Thursday, Webster, who edited The Observer for six years and was its deputy editor for 22 years, spoke out about the proposed Tortoise deal for the first time.

He wrote on Twitter: “Here’s why I think the proposed sale of the Observer to Tortoise would severely damage the reputation of the Scott Trust and threaten the future of the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, which I edited until last weekend.

“This planned sale, if ratified by the Trust, would be a discreditable conclusion to a damaging episode in the company’s history.

“It is based on two false premises. One, that the Observer represents a serious threat to the security and future of the Guardian because of its financial position.

“This is preposterous. As editor for the past 6 years, I was provided with  revenue and expenditure data.

“They showed that despite the well-documented decline of print sales, The Observer has continued to make a net contribution of several millions of pounds to the company’s finances.

“Even once added expenses are included, as they have been in the company’s recent shameful attempt to bundle the paper out of the door as quickly as possible, and account is taken of shared resources we use, the losses are miniscule set against the company’s  £1.3bn cash pile.

“And they fail to take any account of mitigating strategies we might have discussed, but which the Trust entirely failed to consider during my tenure, or of the considerable contribution Observer journalism makes to the Guardian website’s breadth of coverage and income.

“The second false premise is that Tortoise Media, a small historically loss making start up, is able to sustain the Observer as a serious competitor on Sunday newstands.

“Based on the little information Observer journalists have been provided with it does not have the resources to shoulder the cost of sustaining a standalone Sunday paper with a comprehensive news, foreign, sports, business and cultural coverage able to compete with our rivals.

“Nor are its projections of subscription sales realistic, and uncertainty clouds the scale and future of its funding.

“The Scott Trust boasts a proud record of defending liberal journalism, as represented by both the Guardian AND the Observer. It appears as if it’s about to betray that record by essentially gifting the Observer to a small, historically loss-making start-up.

“If its losses are severe enough to warrant abandoning the Observer then it is doubtful that Tortoise has the means to sustain the title. If they are not, then the Trust, with a £1.3bn endowment, is a far better home for the Observer.

“The Guardian persistently boasts that it’s not owned by a proprietor. But – by excluding its own journalists from the process of the sale – it has behaved as if it is.

“As a senior journalist on the Guardian and Observer for 35  years, I believe the Scott Trust should reject this deal and embark on a proper review of the Observer’s future if it is to uphold its clearly enunciated role as a defender of liberal journalism at home and abroad.”

Financial Times to expand weekend food and drink coverage

The Financial Times poached Rayner amid an expansion of its weekend food and drink coverage.

The business paper has also hired former Sunday Times restaurant critic and current Noble Rot contributing editor Marina O’Loughlin for a monthly FT Magazine column about the global restaurant scene and food culture.

The FT’s current restaurant critic, Tim Hayward, moves to a new role as a food writer, “contributing deep-dives on home cooking projects and other culinary fixations”.

Rayner said: “I have been both an avid fan and devoted reader of the paper for many years and it’s an honour to become part of a team I have admired from afar for so long.

“I can’t wait to play my part alongside the huge talents that are Jancis Robinson, Tim Hayward and Marina O’Loughlin, in providing the most entertaining and authoritative food and drink coverage in the business.”

Hayward said: “Twelve years is a long time to be critical about restaurants. I’m looking forward to being able to write fully about the thing I love, enthusing about food, in breadth and depth.”

And O’Loughlin said that, “after leaving the Sunday Times, I’ve made a hobby of saying ‘no’ to offers.

“So it’s with enormous pleasure that I’m now saying ‘yes’ to my favourite of all the major newspapers, with the best food and drink section in the business.”

Janine Gibson, editor of FT Weekend, said: “The FT Magazine’s food and drink coverage under its brilliant editor Harriet Fitch Little has gone from strength to strength.

“We have ambitious and exciting plans for the next year and assembling this stellar lineup of the greatest authorities in their field is the first step.

“FT Weekend readers look to us for expertise and exceptional writing on every aspect of culture, and this food and drink team will be unparalleled in their ability to deliver on every front.”

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Observer staff have been warned that “difficult decisions” lie ahead if the Tortoise deal to buy the title does not go ahead, according to the latest sale update.

Guardian Media Group chief executive Anna Bateson said The Observer is loss-making when shared costs are taken into account and that it is forecast to become loss-making regardless within three years.

According to a financial statement for the year to August 2024, the Observer newspaper made annual revenue of £16.4m meaning it made a “contribution” to GMG of £3.4m, excluding shared costs.

In her email to staff, Bateson said GMG was already “beginning to think about the future of the title, given its financial situation and the fact it is a UK-only, Sunday print newspaper” before Tortoise Media made its bid for the title just over a month ago.

Tortoise Media has promised £25m of investment in The Observer over five years. No additional purchase price has yet been mentioned publicly.

Bateson described this as “a serious offer” which would “create a more sustainable business strategy for The Observer”.

Sale latest: The Observer would become main Tortoise Media brand

Talking about the detail of the Tortoise bid, she said: “Tortoise Media propose that they would continue to publish the Observer as a Sunday newspaper, with business, sport and international coverage and an emphasis on original journalism.

“The Observer would be the brand for the media organisation and all the existing sections – Observer Magazine, New Review and OFM [Observer Food Monthly] – would be retained. In addition, Tortoise would invest in creating a dedicated digital presence for the Observer, as well as newsletters, podcasts and events.”

Observer insiders question whether Tortoise has the funding in place to cover business, sport and international news – all of which currently come from Guardian journalists.

Bateson said a final decision on whether or not the deal will go ahead is expected before Christmas. Insiders question why there is such haste to get the deal done to what appears to be a Tortoise-imposed deadline.

The Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian, has been accused of betraying The Observer and its journalists by seeking to sell the title.

But Bateson said: “If the deal goes ahead, ensuring that there will be an ongoing alignment of values is extremely important. The Scott Trust believes that considering the offer is entirely consistent with its responsibilities to liberal journalism.

“The Observer would become the sole title and focus for Tortoise, thus enhancing liberal journalism and increasing plurality.”

Insiders maintain that statements from The Scott Trust had given the impression that The Observer was subject to the same protections as The Guardian. For example at the time of its purchase in 1993 then-Scott Trust chair Hugo Young said The Guardian’s “trust safeguards will be fully extended to The Observer”, although management believe this related only to the newspaper’s editorial independence.

Observer staff warned status quo will not return

Bateson warned that life would not go on as before for Observer staff if the Tortoise deal is abandoned.

She said: “If the deal does not go ahead, the status quo is not an option. Kath [Viner, The Guardian editor], in her email at the beginning of the summer, committed to a strategic audit of the Observer which would involve some difficult choices – and that would need to happen urgently.

“We want to be plain about this because we all have a responsibility to be honest about the growth prospects of a UK only, Sunday, print title when it is competing with investment in the future of the Guardian.”

One Observer insider said the title was no more print-only than the The Guardian given the fact all its content was published online and contributed to the digital side of the business.

On the Observer’s current financial position, Bateson said: “We have shared an Observer-only P&L (profit and loss statement) with staff. Although the Observer has performed well in terms of its market share, its circulation is, like all newspapers in print, in continual decline and the title is forecast to be loss-making within three years, if not sooner.

“If shared costs, such as technology, ad sales, marketing, rent, finance and HR as well as sport, international and business journalism, were allocated, the Observer would already be loss-making.

“This is why we talk about needing to make difficult decisions if the deal does not go ahead. In other words, the Observer is likely to have more freedom to be financially sustainable if it is separated from the Guardian.”

One insider said that the tone of this felt “quite bullying” because it was effectively telling Observer staff “things will be horrible if you stay”.

It is still unknown who exactly is financially backing the deal, but Bateson said: “An initial assessment of Tortoise Media’s existing investors found them fit and proper to proceed to this point.”

Tortoise editor in chief James Harding is the largest single shareholder in the business with a 32.5% stake.

Scott Trust would retain Observer stake

If the deal goes ahead, the Scott Trust will retain a small stake in The Observer which would be “a sign of confidence in the future success of the title”, Bateson said.

The Observer would be covered, she said, by Tortoise Media’s existing commitments to editorial independence.

The existing NUJ “house agreement” would transfer across with The Observer. This means staff would be protected from compulsory redundancies (but not from losing their jobs if the standalone business were to fail).

Journalists at The Guardian and Observer have backed possible strike action in protest against the sale in an indicative vote.

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Guardian and Observer journalists have voted in favour of possible strike action in protest at proposals to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media.

The combined NUJ chapel has already passed a no-confidence motion in the board of the Scott Trust in protest at the Observer sale plan.

According to the NUJ, an “overwhelming” 93% of the group’s journalists, on a turnout of 70%, indicated their willingness to take strike action and 96% voted in favour of action short of a strike.

The union says it has now informed GMG of its intention to formally ballot members for industrial action.

The union said: “The resounding decision is in opposition to the proposed sale of The Observer and follows confirmation by the Guardian Media Group last month that it is engaged in exclusive talks with Tortoise Media.”

At a meeting of the NUJ Guardian & Observer chapel on 24 October, representatives agreed a formal postal ballot process should now proceed, with journalists urged to vote yes to participating in industrial action.

According to the NUJ: “Journalists are agreed that they have no choice but to consider industrial action to protect the much-loved title and its role providing valued journalism within the media landscape.

“No engagement with journalists or the NUJ was sought prior to negotiations by GMG and the union has voiced its deep-rooted concerns over the viability of the title and journalists’ jobs if it is sold to James Harding’s startup. The company, not yet profitable, has pledged £20m capital investment with plans to implement a paywall if the bid is accepted.”

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “Journalists are resolute in their opposition to the Observer sale for reasons understood by its readers, many of whom have indicated their support for members.

“The hurried decision to pursue talks without prior engagement with the very journalists who ensure the title’s success is shocking and ill-judged, but reps are committed to resolving the dispute and stress there is still time to avoid industrial action. There must now be an end to transfer talks and a willingness by the Scott Trust to demonstrate its commitment to the Observer.”

A spokesperson for Guardian News and Media said: “Guardian Media Group announced last month that it was entering into exclusive negotiations about the offer from Tortoise Media to buy the Observer. We were transparent about the offer so we could openly engage with Observer staff and we will continue to do so. The offer proposes an investment in the future of the Observer, including building a digital presence for the Sunday newspaper, and those negotiations are ongoing.”

Earlier this week former Observer editor Roger Alton gave his blessing to the Tortoise Media bid.

He said: “Clearly the Scott Trust, owners of the Guardian, wants to wash its hands of the Obs, which it has always seemed to view as an unwanted and charismatic neighbour arriving at a sedate family dinner. In my view, Tortoise would clearly be an ideal new owner. It too has a proud record in major campaigns, its journalism is widely admired, its podcasts pioneering too.”

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Press Gazette is honoured to announce the finalists for the British Journalism Awards 2024.

This year’s British Journalism Awards attracted 750 entries encompassing every major news organisation in the UK.

The finalists are announced today following a three-week process involving 80 independent judges and two days of jury-style meetings.

In order to make the shortlists work has to be revelatory, show journalistic skill and rigour and serve the public interest.

The winners will be announced on 12 December at a dinner in London hosted by Radio 2 presenter and journalist Jeremy Vine.

Details here about how to book tickets.

The shortlist for News Provider of the Year will be announced following a second round of judging. The winners of Journalist of the Year, the Marie Colvin Award and the Public Service prize will be announced on the night.

Chairman of judges and Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford said: “Without journalism, Boris Johnson would still be prime minister, wronged postmasters would not have a voice and victims of the infected blood scandal would not have a chance of compensation.

“The 2024 British Journalism Awards shortlists celebrate the stories which would not be told without journalists willing to shine a light on uncomfortable truths and publications brave enough to back them up.

“Congratulations to all our finalists and thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the British Journalism Awards.

“In a media world which is increasingly controlled by a few parasitic technology platforms it is more important than ever to celebrate the publishers willing to invest in and support quality journalism that makes a difference for the better in our world.”

British Journalism Awards 2024 shortlist in full:

Social Affairs, Diversity & Inclusion Journalism

Natasha Cox, Ahmed El Shamy, Rosie Garthwaite — BBC Eye Investigations

• Perfume’s Dark Secret

Jessica Hill — Schools Week

• Missing from mainstream: Excluded children with nowhere to go
• ‘Out of sight, out of mind’: The rise of unregistered alternative provision
• Hospital schools: On the mental health crisis frontline

Sasha Baker, Valeria Rocca — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• The parents group at the centre of a rollback of trans rights
• ‘One day they may thank us for that “abuse”’: Inside the Bayswater Support Group

Rianna Croxford, Ruth Evans, Cate Brown, Ed McGown, Tom Stone, Ed Campbell, Karen Wightman — BBC Panorama

• The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Cool

Daniel Hewitt, Imogen Barrer, Mariah Cooper, Reshma Rumsey — ITV News

• Nowhere to go: Britain’s homeless emergency

Louise Tickle — Tortoise Media

• Taking the stand: Grace’s story
• Taking the stand: Emma’s story

Abi Kay — Farmers Weekly

• Level the Field
• Is there a problem with young farmer culture?
• Editor’s view: Facing hard truths about young farmer culture

Joshua Nelken-Zitser, Ida Reihani, Kit Gillet — Business Insider

• Iran will pay for gender-transition surgery, but it comes at a cost — your dignity

Features Journalism

Sophie Elmhirst — 1843 magazine, The Economist and The Guardian

• The last stand of the call-centre worker
• Chortle chortle, scribble scribble: inside the Old Bailey with Britain’s last court reporters
• Last love: a romance in a care home

Jenny Kleeman — The Guardian

• America’s premier pronatalists on having ‘tons of kids’ to save the world: ‘There are going to be countries of old people starving to death’
• She was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested, outcast and condemned. The problem? Nothing was fake after all
• ‘I know someone who played noughts and crosses on one’: meet the top surgeon who burned his initials on a patient’s liver

Sirin Kale — The Guardian

• ‘My child was drowning’: life and death on an English maternity ward
• The life and tragic death of John Balson: how a true crime producer documented his own rising horror
• The Russell murders: is Michael Stone in prison for a brutal crime he didn’t commit?

Zoe Beaty — The Independent

• How Nigel Farage took over my hometown – and why Keir Starmer should be worried
• My battle to bring a predatory Met Police officer from the same unit as Wayne Couzens to justice
• ‘A court packed with those who know their way around already, and jails are too full to take them’

Inderdeep Bains — Daily Mail

• My doctors insist it’s time I died – but I will fight them: Extraordinary case of 19-year-old woman suffering from Charlie Gard condition battling medics’ attempts to ‘condemn her to death’
• Sudiksha: ‘Condemned to Die in Secret’ – The Shocking Story of the 19-year-old’s fight to live

David James Smith — The Independent

• How did so many miss the sinister warning signs about James Bulger’s killer for so long?
• Is Lucy Letby innocent? I’m a miscarriage of justice investigator – and here’s what I think…
• The wife of this Murdoch executive has been missing since the Sixties – will her body now be found?

Fiona Hamilton — The Times

• Nottingham attacks: ‘We have no faith in the police. We want justice’
• ‘A horrible way to die … and no doctors can help you’
• Realising Sarah Everard got into a sex offender’s car was horrific

Barbara McMahon — Daily Mail

• Ghislaine Maxwell ‘was tortured in prison – now she’s ready for a comeback’: Jeffrey Epstein’s socialite pimp runs half marathons at low-security Florida lock-up and is now ‘focused and motivated’ for her appeal next week, her brother reveals
• ‘I shook Epstein’s hand and asked him what my daughter would be doing’: Virginia Roberts’s father describes dropping her off at paedophile’s mansion, meeting ‘despicable’ Ghislaine… and blasts Prince Andrew for showing ‘no remorse’
• Black Widow who ‘relished killing and had no regard for human life, even for children’: Griselda Blanco shot a child in the head when she was 11 and rose to be Miami’s drug kingpin. As she’s immortalised on Netflix, her son recalls his ‘fearsome’ mother

Local Journalism

Abi Whistance, Joshi Herrmann, Kate Knowles, Mollie Simpson, Jothi Gupta — Mill Media

• Special investigation: The collapsing world of Liverpool’s charity kingpin
• Investigation: The spectacular rise and sudden fall of Gurpaal Judge
• Exclusive: How did a semi in Harpurhey sell for £1.8m?

Richard Newman, Jennifer O’Leary, Gwyneth Jones, Chris Thornton — BBC Spotlight

• Katie: Coerced and Killed

Sam McBride — Belfast Telegraph

• Lough Neagh has become a scene of Biblical disaster, and Stormont was central to its destruction
• Killing Edgar podcast

Chris Burn — The Yorkshire Post

• Building societies scandal: Yorkshire victims reveal shocking stories – and plead for action to be taken
• Philips Trust: FCA got ‘Ponzi scheme’ warning on firm at heart of £138m building society scandal – 18 months before collapse
• Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham Building Societies to pay tens of millions to Philips Trust victims

Jane Haynes — Birmingham Mail and Birmingham Mail/Post

• Teacher’s ‘life blown apart’ in onslaught of hate as false racism claim goes viral
• The truth exposed about ‘secretive’ council meeting on equal pay crisis in Birmingham
• ‘Like a prison’ – the tower block for homeless families that has 8pm curfew and no visitors allowed

Wendy Robertson — The Bridge

• The Bridge newsletter

Health & Life Sciences Journalism

Rebecca Thomas — The Independent

• Mental health patients ‘raped and sexually assaulted’ as NHS abuse scandal revealed
• Nicholas’s story: ‘I’ve been locked up for 10 years because I’m autistic. Is a chance at life too much to ask?’
• Revealed: NHS regulator’s ‘culture of fear’ that leaves rogue nurses free to abuse patients

Fin Johnston — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Science for sale: Philip Morris’s web of payments to fund tobacco research
• Inside the strategy doc Philip Morris never meant you to see
• Tobacco state: why Japan was the perfect testing ground for Philip Morris

Hannah Barnes — The New Statesman

• The trauma ward
• The Cass Review into children’s gender care should shame us all
• Hundreds of doctors are challenging the BMA’s stance on puberty blockers

Robbie Boyd, Eamonn Matthews, Steve Grandison, Ian Bendelow, Sophie Borland, Katie O’Toole, Islay Stacey, Ali Watt, Frances Peters — Quicksilver Media for Channel 4 Dispatches

• Undercover A&E: NHS in Crisis

Ellie Pitt, Cree Haughton, Justina Simpson, Ellie Swinton, Patrick Russell, Liam Ayers — ITV News

• The Dark Side of Cosmetic Surgery

Martin Bagot — Daily Mirror

• Day in the life of a dentist – and why it’s nothing like you imagine as NHS nears collapse
• Britain’s dental health crisis exposed as hundreds of children in hospital with bad teeth
• Urgent warning amid fears cosmetic fillers could cause immune system problems

Hanna Geissler — Daily Express

• ‘I’m terminally ill – assisted dying must be legalised so my daughter won’t see me suffer’
• Assisted dying ‘allowed me to mostly forget’ fears, says Aussie man hit by brain tumour
• Dame Esther’s assisted dying petition delivered to Prime Minister’s doorstep

Crime & Legal Affairs Journalism

Sue Mitchell, Rob Lawrie, Joel Moors, Winifred Robinson, Dan Clarke, Philip Sellars, Tom Brignell, Mom Tudie — BBC

• To Catch a Scorpion
• How we found Europe’s most wanted migrant-smuggler
• Why the BBC could track down a people-smuggling kingpin before the police

Gabriel Pogrund, Katie Tarrant — The Sunday Times

• Millionaire’s ‘sex worker immigration scandal’
• Hamish Ogston: millionaire accused of exploiting women ‘set up charity to help win knighthood’
• Hamish Ogston: tycoon asked Met to arrest woman who accused him of sex trafficking

Mike Sullivan, Jerome Starkey, Mike Ridley — The Sun

• ‘Distraught’ Holly Willoughby under police guard after man is arrested over terrifying ‘kidnap plot’
• Police chief faces ‘Walter Mitty’ probe after being pictured wearing Falklands medal despite being 15 at time of war

Hannah Summers — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Family Court Files: mother ‘devastated’ after rapist father granted contact with child
• Family Court Files: Psychologist’s evidence used to ‘ramp up’ allegations of parental alienation
• Kristoffer White: TBIJ wins court battle to publish name of sex offender

Rianna Croxford, Ruth Evans — BBC Panorama and BBC News

• Abercrombie & Fitch ex-CEO accused of exploiting men for sex
• Lawsuit accuses Abercrombie & Fitch of funding sex-trafficking operation
• FBI investigate after ex-Abercrombie boss sex claims

Isobel Yeung, Alex Nott, Esme Ash, Nick Parnes, Alistair Jackson, Matt Bardo, Sarah Wilson — Channel 4 Dispatches

• Britain’s Unsolved Crimewave: Dispatches

Comment Journalism

Daniel Finkelstein — The Times

• Israelis and Palestinians must start to listen
• Wes Streeting’s lessons from Richard Nixon and China
• Here’s the Keir Starmer I’ve known for decades

Matthew Syed — The Sunday Times

• When I was at school a teacher could call me the P-word. We’ve come so far
• The storm is gathering, and Europe is still dithering on defending itself
• Locked in by language, we are freed by music, poetry, painting … and love

Will Hayward — WalesOnline/The Will Hayward Newsletter

• The most pointless job in Wales
• The worst political leader in the UK
• Bluster, fluster and ‘word salad’ nonsense: Vaughan Gething ducks and weaves like a boxer at the Welsh Covid Inquiry

Kitty Donaldson — i

• Part political update, part group therapy: inside Starmer’s Cabinet meeting
• Grenfell is a tragic reminder to the Tories that regulation is not a dirty word
• The winter fuel row is a painful wake up call for new Labour MPs

Frances Ryan — The Guardian

• A summer defined by men killing women and girls. This can’t go on
• Think of this: a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people. What kind of nation is Britain becoming?
• Cropped out, banned, airbrushed: the school photos that show the ugly face of Britain today

Duncan Robinson — The Economist

• Why the next Westminster scandal is already here
• The narcissism of minor differences, Labour Party edition
• British boomers are losing out for the first time

Specialist Journalism

Peter Blackburn — The Doctor (by the British Medical Association)

• Nowhere left to turn
• Fears for patient care due to shortages of chronic alcohol misuse treatment Pabrinex
• Not the only failing

Lucinda Rouse, Emily Burt, Ollie Peart, Louise Hill, David Robinson, Rebecca Cooney, Andy Ricketts, Nav Pal, Til Owen — Third Sector

• The End of Charity podcast

Lucie Heath — i

• Revealed: Water firms dumped sewage 5,500 times in a year ‘illegally’
• Revealed: The hidden sewage spills damaging our national parks and beauty spots
• Toxic water, debt and sewage dumping: How Britain’s rivers got so bad

Deborah Cohen, Margaret McCartney — BMJ/Pharmaceutical Journal

• Inclisiran: the ‘extremely unusual’ political influence behind the novel drug’s approval
• Galleri promises to detect multiple cancers—but new evidence casts doubt on this much hyped blood test
• Inclisiran: Government’s strategy to promote cholesterol lowering drug after Brexit was “spectacular failure,” says insider

Lee Mottershead — Racing Post

• Revealed: the racehorse owner fronting an illegal bookmaker with more than 1,000 customers
• ‘People don’t want to provide bank statements. We’ve got so many people betting with us’

Jessica Hill — Schools Week

• The rise of the parent activist
• AI’s allure is proving hard to resist for the UK’s learners
• ‘Out of sight, out of mind’: The rise of unregistered alternative provision

Emily Townsend — Health Service Journal

• Over 30 sepsis deaths linked to ‘systemic’ failings, investigation reveals
• Revealed: Doubling of average waits for critical stroke treatments
• Midwives call women in labour ‘Asian princesses’ amid ‘hostile’ environment fears

Roya Nikkhah — The Sunday Times

• Prince Harry at 40: ‘All he does is spend time looking back’
• The hospital heart-to-hearts that brought Kate and King even closer
• Prince William to build houses for homeless on his land in Cornwall

Foreign Affairs Journalism

Christina Lamb — The Sunday Times

• Gun in hand, the Israeli settler tells the Palestinian: I will kill you
• First Hamas fighters raped her. Then they shot her in the head
• ‘Who will protect us?’: Christina Lamb on the Yazidis’ dangerous journey home

Alex Crawford — Sky News

• Libya floods: Child’s voice heard under rubble as rescue teams search desperately in Derna for survivors
• Warning of Islamic State’s growing resurgence – as Sky News gets rare access to terrorists’ families
• Report from Lebanon

Kim Sengupta — The Independent

• Bombs, betrayal and burying loved ones: Plight of one Ukraine village illustrates toll of Russia’s invasion
• ‘I have buried more than 50 friends’: My life as a British soldier fighting on Ukraine’s bloody front line
• The families of hostages taken by Hamas are desperate – but can Israel get them back?

Vanessa Bowles, Jaber Badwan — Channel 4 Dispatches

• Kill Zone: Inside Gaza

Louise Callaghan — The Sunday Times

• The secret city of tunnels where hundreds live below Vegas glitz
• Claudia Sheinbaum: Meet the woman ready to be Mexico’s first presidenta
• Stand-off at Eagle Pass: welcome to the epicentre of the US border crisis

Secunder Kermani — Channel 4 News

• Palestinian detainees allege torture and sexual abuse by Israeli captors
• Myanmar military forces victims to fight in brutal civil war

Gesbeen Mohammad, Brad Manning, Nechirvan Mando, Ghoncheh Habibiazad, Esella Hawkey, Tom Giles, Hafez — ITV

• Inside Iran: The Fight for Freedom

Stuart Ramsay, Dominique van Heerden, Toby Nash — Sky News

• Haiti gang boss will take part in talks if invited – but warns foreign forces will be treated as ‘invaders’
• Aboard ‘The Beast’: What do migrants face travelling through Mexico on way to US?
• Shocking scenes in Gaza hospital as IDF moves into Khan Younis | Israel-Hamas war

Arkady Ostrovsky — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• Life and death in Putin’s gulag
• Death and destruction in a Russian city
• Life and fate (podcast)

Technology Journalism, sponsored by Amazon

Alexander Martin — The Record from Recorded Future News

• Ransomware attacks hit record level in UK, according to neglected official data
• UK government urged to get on ‘forward foot’ with ransomware instead of ‘absorbing the punches’
• Exclusive: UK to propose mandatory reporting for ransomware attacks and licensing regime for all payments

Marianna Spring — BBC News

• The real story of the news website accused of fuelling riots
• Trump supporters target black voters with faked AI images
• X takes action on deepfake network smearing UK politicians after BBC investigation

Joe Tidy — BBC World Service

• ‘Pig butchering’ scammers target BBC reporter
• Sextortion warning: In six hours, my son was dead
• Stolen test data and NHS numbers published by hospital hackers

Amanda Chicago Lewis — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• Secrets of a ransomware negotiator

Cathy Newman, Job Rabkin, Emily Roe, Sophie Braybrook, Guy Basnett, Ed Howker — Channel 4 News

• Deepfake Porn

Helen Lewis — BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds

• Helen Lewis Has Left the Chat

Energy & Environment Journalism, sponsored by Renewable UK

Sam McBride — Belfast Telegraph

• Apocalypse Neagh: The source of 40% of NI’s water is ‘dying’
• Watch: Sam McBride’s in-depth look at Lough Neagh’s blue-green algae crisis

Josephine Moulds — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Backroom deals, mystery companies and a ‘killer lake’: inside DRC’s gas and oil auction
• HSBC helped oil and gas industry raise $47bn despite net-zero pledge
• Barclays’ billions of ‘sustainable’ finance for fossil fuel industry is greenwash, says investor

Esme Stallard, Becky Dale, Sophie Woodcock, Jonah Fisher, Libby Rogers — BBC News

• Water firms illegally spilled sewage on dry days – data suggests
• BBC uncovers 6,000 possible illegal sewage spills in one year

Rachel Salvidge, Leana Hosea — The Guardian/Watershed

• The Watershed Pollution Map
• Landfills across England could be leaking harmful toxic ooze, warn experts
• ‘It’s a poison and it’s killing us’: the hidden dangers of old UK landfills

Guy Grandjean, Patrick Fee, Gwyneth Jones, Chris Thornton — BBC Spotlight Northern Ireland

• Spotlight – The Lough Neagh Monster
• Hundreds of environmental breaches by Moy Park

Sofia Quaglia — The Guardian

• ‘If we can’t fish any more, we’re going to die’: the volunteer sea patrols protecting precious Philippine waters
• From sea to plate … to sea! Hong Kong puts oyster shells to new use
• ‘It smells so bad’: glut of wild salmon creates stink in Norway and Finland

Jess Staufenberg — SourceMaterial

• Trojan Horsepower – Formula 1 and the Saudi oil lobby
• F1 lobbies for Saudi against EU green rules

Arts & Entertainment Journalism

Mark Daly, Mona McAlinden, Shelley Jofre, Jax Sinclair, Karen Wightman, Hayley Hassall — BBC Panorama

• The Dark Side of Ballet Schools

Jonathan Dean — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Oasis reunion and Wembley gigs next year … is that definitely, maybe?
• Ridley Scott: I didn’t need historians to make my Napoleon epic
• Olly Alexander on Eurovision: ‘I was trying not to have a breakdown’

Rachael Healy — The Guardian and Observer

• ‘At the start you get molested and by 45 you’re too old to work’ – the secret misery of women working in TV
• Fresh crisis at ‘toxic’ Strictly as ex-staff claim they faced sexualised comments and cruelty
• ‘The outrageousness of what Louis CK did is totally lost’: the film about the backlash faced by his accusers

Tom Bryant — Daily Mirror

• BBC’s Huw Edwards scandal teen breaks silence in first interview – ‘I felt groomed’
• Huw Edwards scandal teen: Why I first tried to protect BBC star but now feel shame
• Paul O’Grady’s beloved dog nuzzled star’s shoulder as devoted husband battled to save him

Lucy Osborne, Stephanie Kirchgaessner — The Guardian and Observer

• ‘I honest to God believe I was drugged’: magician David Copperfield’s alleged victims speak out
• The FBI investigated David Copperfield for two years. The claim that he was ‘exonerated’ was widely embraced. Was he?
• ‘Magic David called’: David Copperfield repeatedly contacted Jeffrey Epstein

Clemmie Moodie, Hannah Hope, Scarlet Howes — The Sun

• Strictly pro Giovanni Pernice probed over serious complaints by 3 ‘traumatised’ contestants as BBC ‘gathers evidence’
• Strictly Come Dancing bosses make huge changes to show after Giovanni Pernice quits
• Strictly bombshell as Amanda Abbington demands backstage footage of her and Giovanni as she is diagnosed with PTSD

Carolyn Atkinson, Olivia Skinner — BBC Radio 4 Front Row

• The British Museum’s missing gems
• Painting stolen in art heist more than 30 years ago returned to Glasgow museum

Rosamund Urwin, Charlotte Wace — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse
• How The Times and The Sunday Times investigated Russell Brand
• ‘I felt used and abused’ on Arthur: alleged Russell Brand victim speaks

New Journalist of the Year

Rafe Uddin — Financial Times

• Labour loses Muslim support over stance on Israel-Hamas ceasefire
• Reform UK’s unusual structure with Nigel Farage in the middle
• How Post Office lawyers pushed boundaries in UK sub-postmasters scandal

Sammy Gecsoyler — The Guardian

• ‘We’re going to see people dying on the streets’: homeless refugee crisis grips Liverpool
• ‘Rat bites and chronic asthma’: schools on frontline of UK housing crisis
• Met police agree six-figure payout to student hit by baton at protest

Kaf Okpattah — ITV News, ITV News London

• Whistleblower reveals corruption and collusion inside Wandsworth Prison
• The fraud scammers putting people out of pocket by cloning phone numbers

Simar Bajaj — The Guardian, New Scientist

• Everyone is on their phones. But is it really phone addiction we’re experiencing?
• The surprising mental health and brain benefits of weight-loss drugs
• He was shot in the throat. Now he saves gun victims as a trauma surgeon in Baltimore

Nimra Shahid — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Santander arranged billion-dollar oil bond after making green pledge
• Santander weakened fossil fuel policy after raising billions for gas projects

Venetia Menzies — The Sunday Times

• Anxiety drug pregabalin killed my son — and hundreds more are dying from it
• The company taking refugees out of Gaza — and ‘making millions’
• After the earthquake: how Morocco is rebuilding

Oliver Marsden — The Sunday Times/Al Jazeera

• Hero taxi driver who saved scores from Hamas faces hatred from both sides
• Dodging Israeli rockets with Ghana’s UN peacekeepers
• Israeli strikes on Lebanon: Attacks are causing wildfires across south

Yasmin Rufo — BBC News

• London mayor election: Bots, misleading URLs cause voter confusion
• Ulez expansion: Contested claims examined
• Ulez: More than 300 cameras damaged or stolen in four months

Sports Journalism

Jacob Whitehead — The Athletic

• Special report: Newcastle United sponsor Noon and shocking allegations of worker mistreatment
• Saudi Arabia investigates worker mistreatment allegations after The Athletic report on Newcastle sponsor Noon
• Special report: ‘Disturbing’ safety issues at Hillsborough 35 years after disaster

Oliver Brown — The Telegraph

• Angela Carini was sent unforgivably into harm’s way by gutless IOC cowards
• After my grandfather hugged Jesse Owens, the Nazis told him: ‘Never embrace a black man again’
• Michael Vaughan: If I had gone through this racism ordeal at 80, I would have wanted to be shot

Simon Lock, Rob Davies, Jacob Steinberg — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism / The Guardian

• Abramovich’s hidden football deals during Chelsea’s time at the top (TBIJ) and Chelsea FC face new questions over how Roman Abramovich funded success (Guardian)
• ‘I worked for Abramovich?’: footballers were owned by oligarch via offshore deals (TBIJ) and Revealed: Abramovich, the super-agent and the footballers owned as ‘commodities’ (Guardian)
• Leaked documents reveal Abramovich is still connected to Vitesse (TBIJ) and Abramovich loans fund owner of Dutch football club, leaked documents suggest (Guardian)

Jacob Judah — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• The strange case of the disappearing football team

Riath Al-Samarrai — Daily Mail

• Drifting through life without gold medals, tortured by his past, and now claims of bankruptcy… How did petulant Wiggins fall so spectacularly from his golden bike?
• Seb Coe explains why he’s HAPPY to break 128 years of Olympic tradition by handing out cash for gold… and reveals Roman Abramovich’s unlikely role in athletics
• The curious case of Jade Jones’ drugs test and why the Chinese might be quick to ask questions, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

Ian Herbert — Daily Mail

• Looting and rioting, setting fire to police officers and hunting down English fans… fearful European clubs are turning a blind eye to shadowy leaders of their untouchable ultras
• Thirty-five years after horror of the Hillsborough tragedy, Mail Sport can reveal that incredibly the stadium is still not fit for purpose with poor stewarding, inadequate turnstiles and a problem tunnel
• Grubby, classless, the five-year legal battle over plane crash victim Emiliano Sala takes us into football’s sewers… where players are pawns and chronically inept clubs desperately try to save cash

Matt Lawton — The Times

• Man City launch unprecedented legal action against Premier League
• ‘The horror is everywhere’ – inside Lord Coe’s secret trip to Ukraine
• Russian athletes should be allowed at Olympics, says government

Um-E-Aymen Babar — Sky Sports

• How does endometriosis affect women in sport?
• USA cricket teen on tackling social media trolls, South Asian heritage and 2028 Olympic goals
• Um-E-Aymen Babar ok Tiktok

Campaign of the Year

Caroline Wheeler —The Sunday Times: Bloody Disgrace

• Thousands dead, 40 years of cover-up: time for justice for infected blood victims
• At last: promise of £10bn payout for infected blood victims
• Jeremy Hunt: I promised a dying friend I’d end infected blood scandal

Patrick Butler, Josh Halliday, John Domokos — The Guardian: Unpaid Carers

• Carers threatened with prosecution over minor breaches of UK benefit rules
• ‘Injustice’: 92-year-old with dementia told by DWP to repay £7k in disability allowance
• I’m under attack and fighting back: the scandal trapping carers

Computer Weekly editorial team — Computer Weekly: Post Office Scandal

• Post Office Horizon scandal explained: Everything you need to know
• Fujitsu staff instructed how to bid for government contracts during self-imposed ban
• Post Office Horizon replacement project labelled ‘unachievable’ as taxpayer bill reaches £1bn

David Cohen — Evening Standard: Show Respect

• Boys, porn and the alarming way they talk about girls – a special investigation
• School pupils tell how they are victims of sexual harassment every day
• Show some respect: Standard launches campaign with £500k to tackle sexist abuse in schools

Lucie Heath — i: Save Britain’s Rivers

• Save Britain’s Rivers: i challenges all parties to commit to election manifesto
• Revealed: The hidden sewage spills damaging our national parks and beauty spots
• National Trust signs up to i’s Save Britain’s Rivers manifesto

Hanna Geissler, Giles Sheldrick — Daily Express: Give Us Our Last Rights

• My assisted dying petition proves Brits are compassionate – now Rishi Sunak must act
• ‘I’m terminally ill – assisted dying must be legalised so my daughter won’t see me suffer’
• Assisted dying debate must move on to how law will change, MND campaigner says

Amy Clare Martin — The Independent: IPP Jail Sentences

• Revealed: 16 years in prison for stealing a bike and no hope of release – as 7 trapped in jail kill themselves
• ‘He looked like a starving dog on the floor’: Prisoner trapped on indefinite jail term driven to hunger strike
• Father imprisoned for 12 years for stealing mobile phone under ‘cruel’ indefinite jail term reunited with son

Martin Bagot, Jason Beattie — Daily Mirror: Save NHS Dentistry

• Dentists warn ‘rescue plan’ will fail to end crisis as 60,000 people sign our petition
• Day in the life of a dentist – and why it’s nothing like you imagine as NHS nears collapse
• Britain’s dental health crisis exposed as hundreds of children in hospital with bad teeth

Photojournalism

Thomas Dworzak — 1843 magazine, The Economist

André Luís Alves — 1843 magazine, The Economist

Giles Clarke — CNN Digital

Nichole Sobecki — 1843 magazine, The Economist

Dimitris Legakis — Athena Picture Agency

Stefan Rousseau — PA Media

Hannah McKay — Reuters

Interviewer of the Year

Alice Thomson — The Times

• Ed Davey: ‘Being a carer is harder than being a politician’
• Peter Kyle: It was 5am. A woman said, ‘Your partner is dead ’
• Emma Barnett: ‘The pain was so bad, I was losing the will to live’

Christina Lamb — The Sunday Times

• ICC prosecutor: UK didn’t blitz the IRA — Israel needs that restraint
• The president’s daughter (and Instagram star) wanted by Interpol
• David Cameron: ‘Why did I take the job? Rishi Sunak asked!’

Laura Kuenssberg — Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, BBC News

• Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal
• How Can We Protect Our Children Online?
• Inside No 11 with Chancellor Rachel Reeves

Charlotte Edwardes — The Guardian

• ‘You asked me questions I’ve never asked myself’: Keir Starmer’s most personal interview yet
• ‘Dismissing global warming? That was a joke’: Jeremy Clarkson on fury, farming and why he’s a changed man
• ‘The levels of attack are extraordinary’: Gary Lineker on punditry, podcasts – and why he won’t stop speaking his mind

Nick Ferrari — LBC

• Labour leader Keir Starmer joins Nick Ferrari to take your calls
• Champagne and caviar: Esther Rantzen reveals plans for final moments as she pushes for assisted dying law change
• Nigel Farage joins Nick Ferrari

Samantha Poling — BBC

• How I confronted Emma Caldwell’s killer
• Catching a Killer: The Murder of Emma Caldwell
• Who Killed Emma?

Piers Morgan — Piers Morgan Uncensored

• “Richard Gadd is PSYCHOTIC” Baby Reindeer’s ‘Real’ Martha Fiona Harvey
• Kevin Spacey Breaks Down As He Faces Debt Of MILLIONS
• Piers Morgan vs Rishi Sunak Round 2 | Prime Minister Discusses Israel-Hamas War, NHS, Rwanda & More

Paul Brand — ITV News

• Interview with Rishi Sunak
• Interview with Ed Davey
• Interview with Keir Starmer

(View all three interviews here)

Politics Journalism

Jim Pickard, Anna Gross — Financial Times

• Keir Starmer accepted £76,000 of freebies including tickets to over 20 football games
• Keir Starmer faces backlash over early failure to disclose £16,200 in donor-funded clothing
• Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves declared clothing donations as office support

Pippa Crerar — The Guardian

• Kemi Badenoch accused of ‘bullying and traumatising’ staff
• Rishi Sunak aide placed bet on election date days before announcement
• Tories putting party reputation before sexual assault claim, says alleged victim

Rowena Mason, Henry Dyer, Matthew Weaver — The Guardian

• Biggest Tory donor said looking at Diane Abbott makes you ‘want to hate all black women’
• ‘No room for the Indians?’: Tory donor Frank Hester suggested staff climb on train roof
• Revealed: Sunak flown to Leeds for private tour of Frank Hester’s office weeks after £5m donation

Job Rabkin, Darshna Soni, Ed Gove, Saif Aledros, Georgina Lee, Lee Sorrell — Channel 4 News

• Undercover Inside Reform’s Campaign

Beth Rigby — Sky News

• Election exit poll
• The Battle for Number 10: A Sky News Leaders’ Special
• How Reform fares on Thursday will also determine the Conservatives fate

Caroline Wheeler — The Sunday Times

• Commons worker arrested after allegedly spying for China
• My MP husband Andrew Bridgen was captured by antivax ‘cult’
• At last: promise of £10bn payout for infected blood victims

Jane Merrick — i

• Thousands of disabled people died after ‘Covid treatment withheld’, inquiry to probe
• ‘My daughter was allowed to die of Covid because she had Down’s syndrome’
• Labour manifesto missing pensioners’ winter fuel and bus pass pledges

Steven Swinford — The Times

• Britain and US launch airstrikes on Houthi targets
• Jeremy Hunt looks for £9bn to balance his budget
• Teachers and nurses should get above-inflation pay rise, ministers told

Business, Finance and Economics Journalism, sponsored by Starling Bank

Simon Murphy — Daily Mirror & Sunday Mirror

• Fujitsu boss lives on ‘blood money’ with £2m mansion as we suffer, says Post Office victim
• Provider boasting of ‘compassion’ threatens daughter with court action over £50k care bill for her 93-year-old amputee mother with dementia
• Mirror tracks down former Post Office IT chief that Horizon inquiry insisted couldn’t be found

Ed Conway — Sky News

• Surge in sale of UK-made cars to Russia’s neighbours shows how it’s beating sanctions
• British firms’ exports are almost certainly bolstering Russia’s war machine in Ukraine, Sky data analysis finds
• How British financial services aid sale of Russian gas on European market | Ukraine War

Tom Bergin — Reuters

• Online-gambling giants conquer U.S. with tactics deemed too tough for Britain

Gill Plimmer, Robert Smith — Financial Times

• Chinese state banks are lenders to Thames Water’s parent company
• Thames Water owners pile group with debt
• Thames Water shareholders backed away over regulator’s debt demands

Siddharth Philip, Benedikt Kammel, Anthony Palazzo, Katharine Gemmell, Sabah Meddings — Bloomberg News

• Bogus Supplier of Jet-Engine Parts May Have Faked Employees Too
• Ghost in the Machine: How Fake Parts Infiltrated Airline Fleets
• UK Fraud Cops Make Arrest in Fake Airplane Parts Scandal

Anna Isaac, Alex Lawson — The Guardian

• Sellafield apologises after guilty plea over string of cybersecurity failings
• Nuclear Narnia: why is Sellafield Europe’s most dangerous industrial site?
• Sellafield nuclear site hacked by groups linked to Russia and China

Danny Fortson — The Sunday Times

• Mike Lynch: Flown to the US in chains, now he is free … and talking
• Inside Mike Lynch’s last stand as $11bn fraud trial looms
• The app that promised an NHS ‘revolution’ then went down in flames

Online Video Journalism

Alex Rothwell, Alastair Good, Yasmin Butt, Pauline Den Hartog Jager, Jack Feeney, Federica De Caria, Kasia Sobocinska, Stephanie Bosset — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse | Investigation
• Undercover in a British prison: security flaws exposed | Times Investigation
• ‘Illegal’ conspiracy theory school exposed | Times Investigation

Andrew Harding — BBC News

• BBC tracks down smuggler behind Channel crossing which killed Sara, 7

Mohamed Ibrahim, Owen Pinnel, Mouna Ba, Wael El-Saadi, Feras Al Ajrami — BBC Eye Investigations

• Gaza 101: Emergency Rescue

Tom Pettifor, Matthew Young, Daniel Dove — Daily Mirror

• Has the man who killed Jill Dando finally been found?
• Jill Dando murder: Man wanted for questioning matches features of Serbian assassin
• Jill Dando murder: Key witness identifies Serbian assassin

Lucinda Herbert, Iain Lynn — National World Video

• Lured To Her Death: The Murder of Sasha Marsden

Reem Makhoul, Robert Leslie, Clancy Morgan, Amelia Kosciulek, Matilda Hay, Liz Kraker, Dorian Barranco, Barbara Corbellini Duarte, Erica Berenstein, Yasser Abu Wazna — Business Insider

• 4 Gazans show how war devastated their coastline

Piers Morgan — Piers Morgan Uncensored

• “Richard Gadd is PSYCHOTIC” Baby Reindeer’s ‘Real’ Martha Fiona Harvey

Ben Marino, Joe Sinclair, Veronica Kan-Dapaah, Petros Gioumpasis, Greg Bobillot — Financial Times

• Chinese brokers launder hundreds of millions for global crime groups | FT Film

Investigation of the Year

Scarlet Howes, Mike Hamilton, Alex West — The Sun

• Ex-BBC presenter Huw Edwards charged with making 37 indecent images of children, ‘shared on WhatsApp’
• Huw Edwards used position of power to groom young people for 6 years even sending pictures from BBC desk to impress them
• We’re still suffering, say parents at centre of Huw Edwards scandal as they slam BBC for lack of answers after he quits

Rosamund Urwin, Charlotte Wace, Paul Morgan-Bentley, Esella Hawkey, Imogen Wynell Mayow, Alice McShane, Florence Kennard, Ian Bendelow, Victoria Noble, Alistair Jackson, Sarah Wilson, Geraldine McKelvie — The Sunday Times, The Times, Hardcash Productions, Channel Four Dispatches Investigations Unit

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse
• How The Times and The Sunday Times investigated Russell Brand
• Russell Brand: In Plain Sight

Alex Thomson, Nanette van der Laan — Channel 4 News

• Post Office Scandal

Paul Morgan-Bentley — The Times

• I worked undercover in one of UK’s most dangerous jails — without checks
• My son died in HMP Bedford. I never felt he was safe there
• Undercover in a British prison: security flaws exposed | Times Investigation

Ruth Evans, Oliver Newlan, Leo Telling, Sasha Hinde, Hayley Clarke, Karen Wightman — BBC Panorama

• Undercover School: Cruelty in the Classroom

Job Rabkin, Darshna Soni, Ed Gove, Saif Aledros, Georgina Lee, Lee Sorrell — Channel 4 News

• Undercover Inside Reform’s Campaign

Holly Bancroft, May Bulman, Monica C. Camacho, Fahim Abed — The Independent and Lighthouse Reports

• At last! Afghan special forces heroes set for sanctuary in UK after government U-turn
• MoD accused of burying admission that UK special forces had power over Afghan sanctuary claims
• Murdered, tortured or in hiding from the Taliban: The special forces abandoned by Britain

Daniel Hewitt, Imogen Barrer, Isabel Alderson-Blench, John Ray — ITV News: The Post Office Tapes

• New secret tape reveals top Post Office lawyer was warned of ‘wrongful’ convictions decade ago
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Former Observer editor Roger Alton has given his backing to Tortoise Media‘s bid to buy his old title.

Alton was one of three former Observer editors to accuse Guardian Media Group owner the Scott Trust of abrogating its responsibilities to the title by putting it up for sale.

But writing to Press Gazette, Alton has made clear that he supports Tortoise Media’s bid. Meanwhile, the NUJ is currently balloting Guardian and Observer staff over potential strike action in protest against the deal.

The 70 Observer journalists who would transfer across to Tortoise have concerns about job security working for a stand-alone title.

Roger Alton: Tortoise would offer Observer ‘a massive new shot in the arm’

Alton writes: “I had the great privilege of editing the paper for nearly a decade from 1998 (though I had also spent a fantastic few months working there as a teenager in the 1960s, which convinced me that this was the life everybody should want, and that newspapers were the lifeblood of a healthy society).

“So I feel great loyalty and affection for the paper, which is after all the oldest Sunday paper in the world (b 1791) and has not just been responsible for some of the bravest and best campaigns of recent years, but is also a source of great fun and entertainment and some of the best writing around.

“This is why I am so cheered by the arrival of Tortoise media. Clearly the Scott Trust, owners of the Guardian, wants to wash its hands of the Obs, which it has always seemed to view as an unwanted and charismatic neighbour arriving at a sedate family dinner.

“In my view, Tortoise would clearly be an ideal new owner. It too has a proud record in major campaigns, its journalism is widely admired, its podcasts pioneering too. And it has on its staff some of the best journalists in the country. It is also utterly committed to preserving the newspaper as a print product, as well as developing a substantial digital presence.

“My belief is that Tortoise would not just be an ideal custodian of the traditions and qualities of the Observer, but would also, as a highly-skilled multi-media organisation, offer a massive new shot in the arm.”

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Three former Observer editors have written to the Scott Trust expressing their “profound concern” over the proposed sale of the newspaper to Tortoise Media.

Will Hutton, Roger Alton and John Mulholland have together racked up 20 years editing the UK’s oldest Sunday newspaper.

They claim that safeguards about the Trust’s commitment to The Observer, made when it was bought in 1993, “are plainly being abrogated”.

They note that then-chair of the Scott Trust Hugo Young said at the time of the purchase: “The trust safeguards will be fully extended to The Observer, which will be edited independently of The Guardian and retain its separate character.”

The Scott Trust has owned The Guardian since 1936 when it was set up to safeguard the future of the title and protect it from death duties. The Scott Trust’s purpose, as defined in 1992, is “to secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity”.

Press Gazette understands that Guardian management believe the Hugo Young quote related to the editorial independence of The Observer, not about it being covered by the trust’s core responsibilities.

The three editors wrote that members of the Scott Trust and Guardian Media Group board may choose to “put aside” the “commitment” that was previously made to The Observer, but said: “…we would dispute that it can be done so readily and still honourably – so the reasons need to be unambiguously compelling, and the due diligence undertaken to ensure the Observer has the best prospect of surviving must be of the highest order.”

They wrote: “It has survived for close to 250 years: there is a heavy responsibility on those involved in current discussions to ensure that any decision best protects The Observer, and not just for the next five years.

“Here there are clear deficiencies. Tortoise Media’s interest in the title and belief it could quickly be made to flourish is testimony to its standing with readers and beyond.

“The Observer is valuable media real estate, and an important means for ensuring liberal journalism has a significant presence on Sundays.

“Despite considerably less investment than its principal rivals, it has recently posted an increase in market share. Its presence in the Guardian group, with its distinct character, gives the group a breadth and depth it would otherwise lack as well as carrying costs that The Guardian will carry alone if the sale proceeds.”

The Observer’s current circulation is kept secret by GMG but is believed to total around 100,000.

According to a financial statement seen by Press Gazette, The Observer newspaper made a contribution of £3.4m to Guardian Media Group for the year to August 2024 if you subtract its direct revenue of £16.4m from directly-attributable costs of £13m. These figures do not include any shared Guardian resources which include: editorial, marketing, technology and office. They also don’t include any digital revenue driven by Observer journalism.

The editors have raised concerns about the sustainability of the Tortoise Media plan for The Observer.

They note: “We admire Tortoise’s journalism and respect its achievements together with its high regard for the Observer, but its promised £5m a year additional investment over five years will be significantly eaten up by the costs of underwriting the Observer’s operation as a stand-alone Sunday newspaper – unless it has other undisclosed ambitions for the title. And does Tortoise have the resource to weather unexpected uncertainties – another pandemic or geopolitical tensions?”

The letter concludes: “It is surprising that the trust and board have moved straight to a potential sale to an enterprise backed largely by venture capital whose business model is not long-term ownership but periodic exit – more likely in adverse circumstances.

“Have options for repurposing the Observer under the Trust’s ownership been considered and evaluated? What editorial and financial framework for the Observer’s continuing editorial independence and financial viability is the Trust negotiating?

“The entire exercise seems to have scant respect for earlier commitments or ongoing responsibilities to staff, readers and wider stakeholders. Surely our shared aim is as far as possible to protect The Observer’s long-standing tradition of upholding liberal values as a great Sunday paper? We are not resistant to change, but is this change the better for The Observer and even The Guardian – or worse for both?”

The Scott Trust met on Monday (7 October) but has yet to issue any response to either this letter or an open letter written by around 80 leading UK cultural figures calling on it to reject the “ill-considered” Tortoise Media offer which it described as a “betrayal”.

Separately, the joint NUJ chapel for The Guardian and Observer has passed a vote of no confidence in The Scott Trust and begun the process of balloting members to ask if they would be prepared to go on strike in protest against the deal.

One well-placed Observer source said: “The atmosphere is terrible. The Guardian management are effectively saying to us that if the Tortoise deal doesn’t go ahead then you have no future here.”

When The Observer’s future was last called into question in 2009, the senior Observer team were given the opportunity to prepare a new-look, scaled-down, lower-cost Observer which ended up performing well commercially and editorially. This time, no other options appear to be currently on the table.

A spokesperson for the Scott Trust said: “The Scott Trust believes it is right to engage with Tortoise Media over the potential sale of The Observer and negotiations are ongoing. We appreciate that it is a time of uncertainty for staff.”

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Guardian and Observer journalists have agreed they may take industrial action in protest at plans to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media.

The move comes as a group of prominent cultural figures, many of whom have contributed to The Observer, submitted an open letter to Press Gazette blasting the possible sale, saying it is “disastrous” and values the paper “at or near zero”.

Up to 400 staff attended a meeting of the combined Guardian and Observer NUJ chapel on Thursday (3 October) where strong feelings were aired opposing the deal.

The packed mandatory meeting went on for more than an hour and was a mixture of in-person and via Google Meet.

Two votes were passed unanimously: to put the matter “into dispute” and “if necessary” to hold “industrial action”.

The Guardian and Observer titles are owned by the Scott Trust, whose purpose is “to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity…remaining faithful to its liberal tradition”.

Press Gazette understands staff complained about what was seen as a failure of the Trust to protect plural liberal journalism in tough times. Some spoke about a sense of “betrayal” amongst Observer journalists who have worked at the company for 30 years or more.

There was also concern raised that readers who have made financial donations in order to support Observer journalism will feel misled if the title is sold.

Mention was also made of The Guardian’s “Not For Sale” marketing campaign last year which emphasised the title’s editorial independence. Some staff at the meeting said it was ironic that in fact The Observer did seem to be for sale and apparently at a nominal price.

Guardian Media Group announced on 17 September that it was in a period of exclusive negotiations to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media, which is mainly a podcast publisher.

Tortoise founder and main shareholder James Harding has not yet revealed who is financially backing The Observer bid which is said to include £25m of investment over five years (over and above the title’s running costs). But he has assured staff that the deal will be a boost to liberal journalism.

Around 70 Observer staff would transfer over with the deal.

Both the Scott Trust and Guardian management appear keen to do the deal, with chief executive Anna Bateson describing it as “an exciting opportunity” to build The Observer and “allow The Guardian to focus on its growth strategy”.

Press Gazette understands that Harding has met with some Observer staff but there are still widespread concerns about job security if the deal goes through. Guardian and Observer journalists currently benefit from an NUJ house agreement which includes a no compulsory redundancies promise.

A Guardian spokesperson said: “We are in negotiations about the offer from Tortoise Media to buy the Observer and we are grateful to everyone who has fed their thoughts into discussions so far. One of the reasons for being transparent about the offer was so that we could openly engage with Observer staff. There is still a lot of information to work through and we will continue to discuss internally.”

Prominent cultural figures blast Tortoise bid for The Observer in open letter

Also on Thursday a group of more than 70 prominent UK cultural figures including Oscar-winning actors and directors and some of the UK’s leading novelists and playwrights addressed an open letter to the Scott Trust and Guardian Media Group describing the possible deal as “a betrayal” and calling on them “to reject this ill-considered offer at once”.

Among the signatories were actor Ralph Fiennes, musician and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker, broadcaster Carole Vorderman, playwright Tom Stoppard and actress Lesley Manville.

The letter in full:

The news that the Guardian chief executive and editor-in-chief are actively considering a takeover of the Observer by Tortoise has left us shocked and dismayed. While Tortoise is a respected media outlet, we believe that the move would be disastrous for the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper and its journalists, for the Guardian and for liberal journalism.

While figures of £100m are being bid for other publications, this poorly funded approach sets the value of the Observer at or near zero. The proposal also envisages moving it from a resilient and well-funded newspaper publisher to a small, loss-making digital startup whose funding for the takeover would in all likelihood come from private equity.

Is Tortoise really committed to continuing with the Observer in print? If it were to discontinue the newspaper or if the business were to fail, the Guardian’s editor-in-chief and chief executive and the Scott Trust, which owns Guardian Media Group, would go down in history as being responsible for the demise of the last liberal Sunday newspaper.

The immediate financial threat to the newspaper’s journalism, and its staff, is clear. Even if it were to survive, the Observer would be much changed – cut off from its network of foreign correspondents, sports reporters and business journalists. Leading writers, familiar to the paper’s readers for years, would be gone. Guardian supporters would lose the Observer’s voice and presence on the Guardian website and app. And if, as seems inevitable, the Observer’s politics, arts and culture coverage is to go behind a paywall, then its unique voice in Britain’s national conversation will be muted.

The Scott Trust, the Observer’s parent for 30 years, prides itself on providing a home for journalism free from the taint of corporate interests. Its engagement with this offer, however, suggests that the Observer’s award-winning reporting is something that the organisation, with its £1.3bn endowment, is no longer interested in protecting.

We call on Guardian Media Group and the Scott Trust to reject this ill-considered offer at once, and to retain the Observer as a key element of its seven-day print and online operation. Failure to do so would be a betrayal of the Observer, its staff and its readers.

Yours sincerely,

Monica Ali (author)

Joan Bakewell (journalist and peer)

Julian Barnes (author)

Mary Beard (classicist and broadcaster)

Frank Cottrell Boyce (screenwriter and novelist)

Rosie Boycott (journalist and peer)

Asa Butterfield (actor)

Dorothy Byrne (former television news executive)

Simon Callow (actor)

Bridget Christie (comedian)

Eliza Clark (author)

Jarvis Cocker (musician and broadcaster)

Jonathan Coe (author)

Richard Coles (author and priest)

Stephen Daldry (director and producer)

Janie Dee (actress)

Jeremy Deller (artist)

Clint Dyer (director and actor)

Richard Eyre (director)

Ralph Fiennes (actor and producer)

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (chef and broadcaster)

Nicole Flattery (author)

Michael Frayn (playwright and author)

Mark Gatiss (actor and director)

Bobby Gillespie (musician)

Howard Goodall (composer)

James Graham (playwright)

Hugh Grant (actor)

Colin Greenwood (musician)

Philippa Gregory (author)

Armando Iannucci (writer and producer)

Sheila Hancock (actress)

David Hare (playwright and director)

Robert Harris (author)

Jonah Hauer-King (actor)

Lord Peter Hennessy (historian and peer)

Billy Howle (actor)

Toby Jones (actor)

Asif Kapadia (filmmaker)

Jackie Kay (poet and author)

Helena Kennedy (barrister and peer)

Peter Kosminsky (writer and director)

David Kynaston (historian)

Duncan Kenworthy OBE (producer)

Daisy Lafarge (author and poet)

David Lan (playwright)

Dame Hermione Lee (biographer and academic)

Anton Lesser (actor)

Adrian Lester (actor and director)

Damian Lewis (actor)

Julian Lloyd Webber (musician)

Joe Lycett (comedian)

Caroline Lucas (politician)

Kevin MacDonald (director)

Lesley Manville (actress)

Miriam Margolyes (actress)

Eddie Marsan (actor)

Robert McCrum (author)

David Morrissey (actor and filmmaker)

Ian McEwan (author and screenwriter)

Stephen McGann (actor)

Robert Macfarlane (author and academic)

Sophie Mackintosh (author)

Sienna Miller (actress)

Abi Morgan (playwright and screenwriter)

Michael Morpurgo (author)

Blake Morrison (poet and author)

Mike Newell (director)

Bill Nighy (actor)

Megan Nolan (author)

James O’Brien (broadcaster)

Mark O’Connell (writer)

Andi Oliver (chef)

Miquita Oliver (presenter)

Michael Ondaatje (poet and writer)

Richard Ovenden (librarian and author)

Chris Packham (naturalist and broadcaster)

Pawel Pawlikowski (filmmaker)

Maxine Peake (actress)

Sarah Perry (author)

Alistair Petrie (actor)

Jonathan Pryce (actor)

Philip Pullman (author)

Steve Punt (comedian)

David Puttnam (film producer)

Mark Rylance (actor)

Michael Rosen (author)

Dominic Savage (director)

Tom Shakespeare (sociologist)

Lemn Sissay (author and broadcaster)

Gillian Slovo (author)

Delia Smith (TV presenter and cookbook writer)

Tom Stoppard (playwright and screenwriter)

Olivia Sudjic (author)

Wolfgang Tillmans (photographer)

Carol Vorderman (broadcaster)

Harriet Walter (actress)

John Ware (journalist)

Michael Wynn Jones (writer, editor and publisher)

Shoshana Zuboff (author)

Note: This list was updated on 9 October.

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