THE National and Sunday National have been nominated for Scottish Press Awards.
Political journalist Abbi Garton-Crosbie’s coverage of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill (GRR) being passed in the Scottish Parliament has been shortlisted for Best Coverage of a Live Event.
Meanwhile, the Sunday National’s partygate front page which played on the Wordle trend of the time has been nominated for Front Page of the Year.
Garton-Crosbie worked into the wee hours of the morning across three days to ensure no one missed any part of stage three of the GRR Bill from Holyrood.
The lights went out in the chamber on one day because MSPs were in there so late – a lighter moment of humour amid an arduous week.
Having done extensive coverage of the build-up to the bill passing by 86 votes to 39, Garton-Crosbie admitted she was emotional when the big moment came.
Following her nomination, she said: "I am absolutely thrilled to be nominated for The National's coverage of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill passing in the Scottish Parliament.
George Adam (SNP) summing up how we all feel hearing tories try to blame the Scottish Government for the delays. Just told Burnett "noone is watching", how wrong you are George. pic.twitter.com/xD29pnsNMz
— Abbi Garton-Crosbie (@agc_reports) December 22, 2022
"It was a long three days, and afterwards I was almost hearing 'point of order' in my sleep the number of times the Tories tried to delay proceedings and kick the bill into the long grass.
"Little did we know Section 35 was coming next, and I can't thank the team enough for all their support.”
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack decided to use Section 35 of the Scotland Act to block the bill and is now facing a court battle after the Scottish Government confirmed it would be challenging his move.
Meanwhile, the Sunday National has been rewarded for the quirky way in which it covered the partygate scandal.
Using the well-known Wordle chart, the paper spelled out the words “party”, “liars”, “shame”, before finishing up with “leave”, depicting someone guessing ways in which to describe Boris Johnson and the Tory party after their lockdown antics at Number 10.
The witty front page was revealed line by line on social media to maximise engagement.
As Tory MPs began submitting letters of no confidence in the former PM, the Sunday National did not hold back in calling for him to resign after several pictures emerged of him breaking his own Covid pandemic rules designed to protect the public.
Former Sunday National editor Roxanne Sorooshian said: “I'm delighted the Sunday National has been nominated for the Scottish Press Awards.
"The cover was inspired by a particularly sticky Wordle that morning and the rather stickier challenge of illustrating yet another "Partygate" splash without another big baw face of Boris.
"Unfortunately, Wordle took me five goes in the end that day, but I'm glad our front page has been more successful in being shortlisted for these prestigious Scottish awards."
The awards will be held on Wednesday, June 7, in Glasgow.
