RTÉ documentary strand receives top Irish journalism award

RTÉ’s ‘Prime Time Investigates’ has received the Irish ESB Media Awards 2004 Journalist of the Year accolade for its “superb body of work over the course of the year.”
RTÉ News and Current Affairs won three of the eighteen awards, which were presented yesterday at the ceremony at the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin with the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey as guest of honour.
In presenting the award to Prime Time, the judges said: “The award for Journalist of the Year is a an open one: it can be awarded to any one of the category winners, or for a body of work. In a year characterised by much good journalism, choosing between any of these winners would have been a difficult task. However, there are also years in which the task is made easier by the fact that behind an individual winner there is a team, and a body of work, which has set new journalistic parameters for the year in question.
“For these reasons the award for Journalist of the Year goes to the team behind the superb series of investigative reports under the generic title Prime Time Investigates.”
David Nally, Editor, RTÉ Current Affairs, said: "This award is particularly special because it was given to the team as a whole and is therefore shared by all of those who have worked on the first two series of Prime Time Investigates. The series represents a very significant commitment by RTÉ to the area of investigative journalism and this commitment is now set to continue into the future."
Prime Time Investigates also picked up the award for Best TV Documentary for the programme ‘Crimes Against Children’ about the nightmare world of Internet child pornography which was produced and directed by Paul Loughlin. The reporter was Rita O'Reilly and it was transmitted in December last year.
RTÉ's outgoing Washington correspondent, Carole Coleman, also won an award in the News/Current Affairs category for “her feisty interview with President George Bush, which sent echoes around the US media as well as at home.” The interview won international plaudits for her tenacity in interviewing the President on the eve of his visit to Europe.
(GB)