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National award for regional daily’s pub bombings campaign

A regional daily journalist has won national recognition for his campaign for jusrtice for the families of those killed in the Birmingham pub bombings.

Andy Richards, content editor at the Birmingham Mail, won the ‘Local Hero’ prize at the British Journalism Awards held this week.

It was Andy who spotted a legal loophole that has led to inquests being re-opened into the deaths of 21 people killed in the November 1974 atrocity.

The Mail is continuing to campaign for fresh inquests along with government funding to enable the families to have legal representation at the hearings.

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The judges said: “This was an excellent example of campaigning local reporting at its best: taking an important local issue, backing its readers and having a significant influence on the result.”

Said Andy: “A new inquest represents the only realistic chance of getting to the truth behind what went on on that dreadful night. I would like to dedicate the award to the 21 who died and to their families who deserve to have their many questions answered.”

In a notable double, the Mail’s investigations editor Jeanette Oldham was highly commended in the same category, having won it last year.

Judges were impressed by her investigation into the cash crisis at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, and a report on a schoolgirl abused by 100 men over two years.

Mail editor-in-chief Marc Reeves said: “It’s an enormous honour for the Birmingham Mail and its staff to be celebrated amongst the very best in British journalism.

“Andy and Jeanette are shining examples of what the Mail is all about – finding out what matters to Birmingham people and making a stand for them when those with power and influence would rather pull the wool over their eyes.

“The campaign to help the pub bombing families remains our most important in the past four decades, and we will never stop calling for them to be given the support and justice they deserve.”

Also highly commended in the category was Charles Thomson of East London weekly the Yellow Advertiser, for uncovering a series of child abuse stories in Essex.