Belligerent 'Geldof behaviour' at British Press Awards criticised

The widow of Hugh Cudlipp, the late editor-in-chief of the Mirror Group and one of the most famous journalists of the last century, has expressed her outrage at the "boorish and belligerent" behaviour of guests at the annual British Press Awards, the Oscars of the national newspaper industry.

Lady Cudlipp, who attended the event to present an award in memory of her late husband, said the ceremony threatened to further undermine public confidence in the national press.

In a letter to the Independent's MediaWeekly, Lady Cudlipp writes: "The whole evening was indicative of what the British Press Awards - and some journalists have become - rough, rude, rowdy, jealous, intolerant, boorish and belligerent. The reputation and circulation of their papers will suffer from this lack of pride in the whole of their trade and the job they are doing."

The ceremony, which took place on 15 March at the Hilton Hotel in London's Park Lane, descended into acrimony after Bob Geldof came onto the stage as the Hugh Cudlipp Award was being given to The Sun for its coverage of the 20th anniversary of Band Aid.

Geldof took the opportunity to launch into a scathing attack on the British press for what he claimed was a failure to report comprehensively on the issues facing Africa.

Lady Cudlipp, who was standing on the stage as Geldof traded insults with hecklers in the audience, said she was "angry" at the intervention.

"I was astonished, then appalled when Bob Geldof leapt unbidden to the stage, as I was handing the Hugh Cudlipp Award to the Sun for their Band Aid coverage," she wrote.

"He grabbed the mike, stood in front of me, ignored Andrew Marr (MC of the event) and annoyed everyone with crude words and criticism. Someone, somewhere must have tipped him off because the winners are a guarded secret until the event."

Lady Cudlipp, a former journalist herself, said she was establishing a Hugh Cudlipp Award for media students, in the hope of "providing the next generations of talented young journalists with an appreciation of editorial integrity".

In the wake of the British Press Awards, at which the News of the World was named newspaper of the year, editors of a number of newspapers, including The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, issued a statement to say they could no longer support the event in its current format.

Writing in MediaWeekly, Piers Morgan, a former editor of the Daily Mirror and the News of the World, accuses the dissenting editors of sour grapes.

- Independent