Orwell Prize Shortlists announced

The Shortlists for the Orwell Prize were announced tonight at a special event at the Thomson Reuters HQ in Canary Wharf.

Shortlist for the journalism prize is:
John Arlidge Sunday Times (Magazine, News Review)

Amelia Gentleman The Guardian (G2)

Peter Hitchens Mail on Sunday

Paul Lewis The Guardian

Anthony Loyd The Times; Standpoint

Hamish McRae The Independent

David Reynolds BBC (Radio 4, News online)
Director of the Prize, Jean Seaton, said: "Although moaning about the decline of journalism has been something of a national and international cliche, these acutely written, well-evidenced, careful bits of contemporary journalism show, in fact, it is in fine form."

Blog Prize: The Blog Prize judges shortlisted 6 bloggers:

Hopi Sen Hopi Sen (http://hopisen.wordpress.com)

Jack of Kent Jack of Kent (http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/)

Laurie Penny Penny Red and others (http://pennyred.blogspot.com)

Madam Miaow Madam Miaow Says (http://madammiaow.blogspot.com/)

Tim Marshall Foreign Matters (http://blogs.news.sky.com/foreignmatters)

Winston Smith Working with the Underclass (http://winstonsmith33.blogspot.com)

Named after the central character of 1984, social worker Winston Smith is the second pseudonymous public servant to be shortlisted for the Blog Prize, after last year’s winner police detective Jack Night, who was controversially "outed" by The Times. He is joined by Labour-supporting blogger Hopi Sen, legal blogger Jack of Kent (freelance legal and policy writer, Allen Green), Laurie Penny (‘socialist, feminist... freelance copywriter and sometime blogger’), Madam Miaow (poet, writer and broadcaster, Anna Chen) and Tim Marshall (foreign affairs editor of Sky News).