THE Irish News has been recognised at the prestigious Society of Editors' Regional Press Awards with two winning entries and a commendation.
Security correspondent Allison Morris was joint winner of the Daily Paper Columnist of the Year, while the paper also took the honours in the Innovative and Initiative category for a new fact-checking tool to help hold politicians to account.
Irishnews.com was also highly commended for Website of the Year.
The 2019 awards, which aim to recognise the best in regional and local newspaper journalism across Northern Ireland and Britain, attracted almost 700 entries.
The Irish News was nominated in eight categories overall, with health correspondent Seanín Graham shortlisted for Specialist Writer/Impact Journalist of the Year and Andy Watters a finalist in the Daily Paper Sports Journalist of the Year category.
Cahair O'Kane was also shortlisted for Social Media Journalist of the Year and the work of sub-editor Kevin Farrell led to a nomination in the category Magazine/Supplement Designer of the Year.
In addition, The Irish News was shortlisted for Daily Newspaper of the Year Above 400,000 Monthly Reach.
An awards ceremony was due to take place in London but due to the Covid-19 crisis was broadcast instead in a video event.
Irish News editor Noel Doran said: "The overall standard in the Society of Editors awards is very high so we are delighted with the results today.
"Getting eight entries shortlisted was a notable achievement, and it's brilliant for Allison to be named as columnist of the year and our Google project to win in the innovation category, with our website also highly commended.
"As we complete three months of remote working, the outcome is a great tribute to the efforts of all our staff and contributors."
The Society of Editors said that in spite of this year's difficult circumstances it as "determined that the hard work done by journalists in the regional and local press should not go unrecognised".
