Frontline award for Jerome Starkey of The Times

The Times' Afghanistan correspondent Jerome Starkey was last night presented with the Frontline Club's annual excellence in journalism award.

Starkey has reported extensively on civilian casualties during the Afghanistan War. His coverage of a raid in February this year in which five civilians were killed prompted a US military commander to visit the victims' families.

Accepting the award, Starkey revealed he had previously worked for the Sun writing about celebrities.

BBC special correspondent Allan Little, one of the judges of the award, has paid this tribute to Starkey: "When I have been in Kabul I get more call-backs on Jerome Starkey's work than anyone else's. He has found ways of getting at what is going on on the ground, in places where he himself can't physically travel. I think he is brave, physically and editorially, has an independent mind, seems genuinely on top of things and leading the thinking among the resident hacks. And I think he cares about what's true, as opposed to what people say is true."

• There was also a special award for New York Times photojournalist Joao Silva, who was severely injured by a landmine while embedded with the US military in Afghanistan. A website supporting Joao Silva has been set-up where you can buy one of his prints and make donations.