Daily Mail is crowned Newspaper of the Year at Press Oscars... plus there are awards for Mac, Peter Oborne and Andy Hooper - and ANOTHER four writers are commended
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Accepting the award, Paul Dacre, Fleet Street's longest-serving editor, paid tribute to 'the incredibly hard-working, incredibly brilliant journalists' on the Mail and thanked the newspaper industry, which he said has 'still got a hell of a lot of life left in it'.
Under Mr Dacre, the Mail has now won the Newspaper of the Year at the British Press Awards seven times – more than any other title.
In their citation for the latest accolade, the judges said of the Mail: 'In the seismic year of Brexit, the battle for No 10 and campaigning journalism, the winner had its finger on the pulse of the national conversation. Not only did it shape both the agenda and the narrative, it reflected the temper of a large part of the country in a year of political upheaval. It was a must-read across the political and public spectrum and its strong and provocative voice never wavered.
'From crusading reports on press freedom to Brexit, the sepsis scandal, the madness of drivers using mobile phones, wasteful foreign aid spending, betrayal of Afghan interpreters, the harm caused by 'plastic poison' and the battle to end the witch-hunt against British troops, the conviction of this paper's commentary and campaigning in 2016 was only matched by its energy.
'It is also never afraid to have a strong opinion. It is the job of a newspaper to hold power to account and to forensically question and probe those who act in our name. The decision of the judges was that it dominated the narrative and produced agenda-setting and stand-out coverage in 2016.'
The Mail dominated in the Columnist of the Year (popular) category, in which the judges were 'as ever, impressed by the exceptional standard of entries'.
Dominic Lawson was highly commended for 'having strong views always written with a passion'. But it was the newspaper's Peter Oborne who took the award for what the judges described as 'hard-hitting gritty columns which look at topics from a diverse viewpoint'.
The Mail's long-serving and incomparable Mac – Stan McMurtry – was hailed as 'just superb' by the judges as he was awarded Cartoonist of the Year for his 'beautifully drawn, clever cartoons that excelled in a supreme field'.
And you can watch Dacre himself on the award
here, should you be so minded.