Nation.Cymru’s Martin Shipton wins Journalist of the Year award

Nation.Cymru’s Martin Shipton has been named Journalist of the Year and Political Journalist of the Year in the Wales Media Awards for his coverage of the scandals surrounding Vaughan Gething that ended his short-lived period as First Minister.

Martin broke the story in Nation.Cymru that Gething had accepted donations totalling £200,000 from a convicted environmental criminal. Later he revealed how Gething had told fellow Ministers during the Covid crisis how he had deleted messages on a group chat because they would otherwise have to be disclosed under Freedom of Information legislation.

Public interest journalism

Announcing the winner of the Journalist of the Year award, Elis Owen of the Journalist Charity’s Wales Committee, which organised the event, said: “The downfall of the First Minister shook the Welsh political establishment and the nation. All the media can be proud of their role in exposing the scandal.

“The journalist who broke the story acted in the finest traditions of public interest journalism. He and his fellow journalists followed the trail despite a series of criticisms from other parts of politics, but eventually, thanks to his efforts and those of his colleagues, the people of Wales had the truth.

“For his efforts in breaking the biggest story this year, the award goes to Martin Shipton.”

‘Bad deeds’

Accepting the award, Martin told the audience at Cardiff’s Parkgate Hotel: “I’d like to echo what Elis was saying about the importance of journalism in exposing the bad deeds of the First Minister. I think had it not been for journalists – not just me, but others as well – that he’d probably still be there and Wales would be the worse.

“What I must say as well is that I was very pleased to have the support of the small team that Nation.Cymru has. It’s a very small team, it hasn’t been going that long, and for such a news outlet to win this top award, which I’d like to share with all our team, is quite an achievement.”

Martin wasn’t the only Nation.Cymru writer to pick up an award. Del Hughes was named Feature Writer/Columnist of the Year.

Her citation read: “With a large number of entries embracing a wide range of topics and diverse writing styles, this was a particularly difficult category to shortlist, let alone choose a winner. However, as a natural story-teller able to weave personal experience with social themes, the winner showed her skill in crafting highly readable feature articles with warmth and wit that are both poignant and humorous at the same time.”