Paul Caruana Galizia shortlisted for British Journalism Award

Paul Caruana Galizia has been shortlisted for New Journalist of the Year 2019 at the British Journalism Awards for public interest journalism for his outstanding reporting for British news website Tortoise media.

Caruana Galizia, the youngest son of the late Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, started his journalism career in London after his mother was assassinated as a consequence of her investigative reporting on politics and corruption in Malta in October 2017.

Paul, Finance Editor at Tortoise, told The Shift: “I look forward to producing more great journalism with my colleagues and to keep building on my mother’s work.” He added that he was “incredibly proud” of what Tortoise has achieved in the past year.

The Chairman of the panel of Judges and Press Gazette chief editor, Dominic Ponsford, said: “One quality shines through all the shortlists: bravery. Again and again, journalists have pitted themselves against powerful vested interests to provide a voice for the voiceless and shine a light into the murkiest areas of Britain and the wider world.”

The Chairman stressed that only 20% of entries make the shortlists, which means being a finalist at the British Journalism Awards is a superb achievement in itself.

Tortoise told The Shift they are enormously proud that Paul has been shortlisted for New Journalist of the Year.

“It will be no surprise to admirers of the late, great Daphne Caruana Galizia that her youngest son should turn out to be a fearless, dogged, brilliant investigative reporter and his range of talents has made him a worthy recipient of this important industry recognition.”

Tortoise news team said Caruana Galizia “has also written movingly for us about the murder of his mother and its aftermath, and his work for Tortoise has lived up to all our hopes and expectations.”

My brother @pcaruanagalizia, who became a @tortoise journalist soon after our mother was assassinated for her journalism, has been shortlisted as Britain’s New Journalist of the Year. https://t.co/S4UWQ1fUk7

— Andrew Caruana Galizia (@acaruanagalizia) November 5, 2019

Ponford said that, in many cases, the finalists at the British Journalism Awards this year have placed themselves in physical danger in order to report the news.

“In these days of social media hate mobs it takes courage and a cast-iron skin for a journalist to expose pretty much any uncomfortable truths,” he said.

Tortoise said it was delighted to have been shortlisted for four awards in total, saying this was in itself was “an extraordinary achievement for a news organisation which is still less than a year old”.

Other journalists from Tortoise that made the shortlist include Polly Curtis shortlisted for her reporting on family separation and Chris Cook for his rigorous Brexit reports. The innovative open and inclusive newsroom meetings organised by Tortoise – ThinkIn – have also been recognised by the industry.

Tortoise was created with the aim of creating a different kind of newsroom, with slower and in-depth investigations and an inclusion of audience participation. It was co-founded by James Harding, former Director of the BBC News and Editor of The Times of London, Katie Vanneck-Smith, former President of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, and Matthew Barzun, former US Ambassador to the UK and Sweden.

The British Journalism Awards were launched in 2011, in part as a response to the phone-hacking scandal and the following Leveson Inquiry into press practices with the aim to promote public interest journalism. The awards are open to all journalists writing for a British audience regardless of the news platform.

The winners of the British Journalism Awards will be announced at an awards gala that will take place on 10 December at the Hilton Bankside, London.