BBC Defence Correspondent wins Desmond Wettern Media Award
Captain Richard Woodman awarded Maritime Fellowship Award for outstanding achievement.
BBC Defence Correspondent Caroline Wyatt won the Desmond Wettern Media Award at the Maritime Media Awards 2011 for her excellence in reporting on maritime defence issues.
Of her award – named in honour of Desmond Wettern – she said: “I am utterly delighted and honoured to have been nominated for this award. I think it’s very important that we at the BBC ensure that we cover the vital work of the Royal Navy properly on our news bulletins.”
More than 200 senior officers, journalists, writers, authors, celebrities and business figures including First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope attended last night’s Maritime Media Awards, held at the Institute of Directors in London (November 22).
The Maritime Media Awards provide recognition and encouragement to journalists, writers and television programme makers, who during the past year have made the best contribution to promoting maritime awareness in the public domain. In total 15 journalists, 39 books and 29 television documentaries were nominated for awards. Julian Parker, Chairman of the Awards Committee commented: “This was the largest entry ever and the standard throughout was consistently high.”
Gillian Wettern, representing the President of The Maritime Foundation, Countess Mountbatten of Burma presented the awards to winners of the six categories:
- The Maritime Fellowship Award for outstanding achievement – Captain Richard Woodman, Shipmaster, Elder Brother of Trinity House and Maritime Historian
- The Desmond Wettern Media Award for journalism – Caroline Wyatt, Defence Correspondent BBC News
- The Desmond Wettern Fleet Award for promoting the best positive image of the RN – Commander Jolyon Woodard RN, Commanding Officer 845 Naval Air Squadron
- The Donald Gosling Award for best television documentary – Spencer Kelly for “Titanic: The Mission” – Twenty Twenty Television
- The Mountbatten Award for the best maritime literature – Professor David Abulafia for his book “The Great Sea – A human history of the Mediterranean”
- Lifetime Achievement Award for journalism – Peter Greenfield, Editor and Publisher of Water Craft
Certificates of Merits for television documentaries were awarded to:
- James Rogan – “The Trouble with Pirates” – BBC Films of Record
- Kate Jackson – “HMS Ark Royal” – ITV Studios
- Andrew O’Connell – “Sea Vision” – Channel Five
In the Maritime literature category, Certificates of Merits for outstanding books were presented to:
- John Lee and Matthew Jones – “HMS Warrior 1860” – Conway Maritime Press
- Paul Greenberg – “Four Fish – A journey from Ocean to your Plate” – Penguin
- Jean Hood – “Carrier – A century of first hand accounts” – Conway Maritime Press
- John Mahon – “Drink up and be a Man”- Seafarer Books
- Norman Friedman – “British Cruisers -Two World Wars and After” – Seaforth Publishing
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Editors’ Notes
- Further details of the awards can be found by logging onto www.bmcf.org.uk.
- Desmond Wettern wrote on maritime matters for over 30 years but is probably best known for his role as The Daily Telegraph’s naval correspondent. He was so respected within the service he wrote about that the Royal Navy sent a signal to every ship and naval establishment to inform them of his death in 1991. The Maritime Media Awards were established in 1995 with a single journalism prize presented in his memory. Over the years the event has steadily grown to become the largest and most prestigious within the maritime sector.
- The Maritime Foundation was set up in the early 1980s to promote Britain’s interests across the entire maritime sector. Its purpose is to inform and raise public and parliamentary awareness of the importance of our maritime industries, commerce and defence.
- For further information, please call Ali Kefford on 07775 737062.
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Gallery
A selection of photos from the Maritime Media Awards 2011. More photos are available from the Maritime Foundation’s Flickr Photostream.
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