The Orwell Prize 2009 Launch Debate: Is Journalism Failing Failing States?
Wednesday 22nd October 2008 | 6.30pm for 7pm | The Frontline Club, London W2 1QJ
- Special Blog Prize for 2009 Launched
- Jenny Abramsky, Ian Jack, Ferdinand Mount, Geoffrey Wheatcroft to judge
- Prize open for submissions until 14th January 2009
The Orwell Prize is delighted to announce that, in the year George Orwell’s diaries blog came online, we will be inviting submissions for a Special Prize for Political Blogs.
Bloggers can enter 10 of their posts using our online entry form. As with the Book Prize and Journalism Prize, which are also now open for submissions, the winning entrant will be the one who comes closest to George Orwell’s ambition ‘to make political writing into an art’.
All work published for the first time, in the UK and Ireland, in 2008 is eligible. Submissions will close on 14th January 2009.
We marked the opening of submission with a debate, 'Is journalism failing failing states?', with Lord (Paddy) Ashdown (former Lib Dem leader, diplomat); Peter Beaumont (Journalism Prize Winner 2007, The Observer); David Loyn (BBC Developing World Correspondent, shortlisted for the Book Prize 2006); and Michela Wrong (New Statesman, shortlisted for the Book Prize 2006). The debate was chaired by Jean Seaton, Director of the Orwell Prize.
You can take part in the debate online, by visiting our discussion forum, which includes some multimedia evidence. You can also share your thoughts on on political writing in the UK and Ireland in 2008. Are there any books, or any journalists, you’ve particularly enjoyed reading?
Ian Jack (journalist, former editor of Granta and Independent on Sunday) and Ferdinand Mount (writer, novelist, former policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher) will form the Book Prize jury, with Jenny Abramsky (former Director of BBC Audio and Music, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund) and Geoffrey Wheatcroft (journalist, writer) judging the Journalism and Blog Prizes. Both juries will merge to choose the shortlists and winners of all three Prizes after selecting a longlist in each category. You can read more about the judges here.
Director of the Orwell Prize, Professor Jean Seaton, said: ‘The global crisis we are in is not just one of markets, but one of understanding; a cognition crunch, not just a credit crunch. In such times the need for a prize that rewards clear writing and clear thinking about politics is more urgent than ever.’
On the Special Prize for Blogs, Professor Seaton commented: ‘This year, we started blogging Orwell’s diaries and it has ricocheted all over the world. So it’s only natural that we want to give a prize for the kind of blog writing that Orwell would have appreciated.’