Orwell Prize: Journalist and blogger shortlists unveiled

The Orwell Prize has unveiled the shortlists for its journalism, blog and book prizes for 2012. The Guardian leads the way within the journalist prize with three journalists linked to the title making the shortlist.

A total of six journalists make the shortlist, with Guardian journalists including Edward Docx, who is also recognised for his work in Prospect Magazine, Paul Lewis and Amelia Gentleman, who makes the shortlist for the third year in a row.

One of the submissions made to the prize by Lewis, who is special projects editor at the Guardian and was shortlisted for the prize in 2010, was his Twitter stream for Saturday, 6 August, covering his reporting of the London riots on the social media platform.

Other shortlisted journalists include Daniel Finkelstein of the Times, Simon Kuper of the Financial Times and David James Smith of the Sunday Times.

In an announcement, director of the prize Jean Seaton said the shortlist for the journalism prize "represents the moral heart of reporting at its best".

"Journalists and journalism have had a bruising even shaming year. Yet it has also had a remarkable year of consequential stories told in quite new ways bringing new evidence to bear on important issues."

The annual prize includes three awards: for journalism, a blog, and a book, considered to be closest to George Orwell’s ambition "to make political writing into an art".

Around 140 journalists entered this year's journalism prize and 226 bloggers submitted entries for the blog prize, from which a longlist of 12 journalists and 18 bloggers was drawn up in March.

The blog prize shortlist, which features seven entrants as opposed to the six usually shortlisted, is listed in full below:

• Alex Massie - Alex Massie
• Ms Baroque - Baroque in Hackney
• BendyGirl - Benefit Scrounging Scum
• Lisa Ansell - Lisa Ansell
• Rangers Tax-Case - Rangers Tax-Case
• Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi - Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi
• Wiggy - Beneath the Wig
  

"Six out of the seven shortlisted bloggers are writing independently without any formal alignment of their blog to a publication", according to the Orwell Prize announcement, with all the shortlisted bloggers making the list for the first time.

Seaton added: "Blogging has a vocal and enthusiastic community. The form is evolving – experts let light into dark professional corners and despite the dominance of the mainstream media (and its accomplishment) blogging still provides a venue for diffeerent and independent voices."

The winners of the three prizes, who will each receive £3,000 prize money, will be announced on 23 May.

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