Journalist and campaigner Afua Hirsch received Campaigner of the Year award for campaigning for broadcasting equality.
She is the first recipient of the award, created to recognise her work in campaigning against, and overturning, a disciplinary ruling against Naga Munchetty after the journalist said that comments by Donald Trump were “embedded in racism.”
Hirsch said that she was “beyond surprised” to receive the award, and referring to the campaign’s initials, said that it was the only CBE she wanted.
Born in Norway in 1981, Hirsch was educated at the University of Oxford before beginning a career as a lawyer. She later moved into journalism, working as Legal Correspondent and West Africa Correspondent for The Guardian before transferring to Sky News. She is currently the Wallis Annenberg Chair of Journalism at the University of Southern California.
She was introduced at the event in Old Finsbury Town Hall by Evening Standard columnist Ayesha Hazarika and BBC Broadcaster Samira Ahmed, the latter of whom recently won an equal pay tribunal against the broadcaster.
Ahmed said that Hirsch was “amazed by her dynamism and focus,” while Hazarika said that she “will be one of the people in the history books when they are written.”
The Campaign for Broadcasting Equality was established six years ago to promote racial equality in broadcasting, aiming to achieve demographic parity between broadcasters and the population at large.
