Scotsman Publications take top press awards

Eddie Barnes was named Political Journalist of the Year after revealing in The Scotsman how former Glasgow City Council leader Steven Purcell was suffering from a "chemical dependency", as the career of the man seen as the future of Scottish Labour spectacularly disintegrated in March last year.

Tom English, who writes for The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday, was named Sports Feature Writer of the Year for the fifth time in succession.

Robert Perry won Sports Photographer of the Year for a picture that brilliantly captured the athleticism and raw brutality of boxing, while his colleague Ian Rutherford was named as runner-up.

Peter Ross, of Scotland on Sunday, won Magazine Writer of the Year, while last year's winner, Catherine Deveney, was runner-up.

Ross, who writes his "at large" column every Sunday, was named runner-up in the Newspaper Feature Writer of the Year category.

Scotland on Sunday's Brian Adcock was named Cartoonist of the Year.

The Edinburgh Evening News won Journalism Team of the Year for exposing how the high-profile New Pyjamas fundraising drive for the capital's Sick Kids Hospital cost 1 million to set up and yet raised just 100,000 of the 15m needed for the new building.

The awards, which were sponsored by Royal Mail, BAE Systems, Clydesdale Bank, Diageo, 3x1 Public Relations, Grand Central Hotel Glasgow, Highland Spring, Sound+Vision, SPD Print Solutions and Event Consultants Scotland, were held at the Grand Central, in Glasgow, last night.