Independent shortlisted in journalism press awards

The Independent’s editor-in-chief Geordie Greig and chief international correspondent Bel Trew have both been shortlisted in the British Journalism Awards 2026.

The awards, now in their 15th year, saw 695 entries across a range of categories.

Greig was shortlisted in the Interview of the Year category for his interviews with artist Tracey Emin, author Robert Harris and former prime minister Sir John Major.

During Greig’s encounter with Emin in February this year, the artist recounts her life before and after cancer as she discusses her retrospective show at the Tate.

Reflecting on her ill health she says: “After cancer, my life is unrecognisable. The only thing I’ve still got going for me is painting, is art. The art stayed the same, but nothing else.

“I just hope that people will think one thing: that she is a great painter.”

During the interview she discusses the moment she was diagnosed with cancer and how her surgeon told her she wouldn’t make it, but she survived.

“I had this operation where they removed my bladder, half my vagina, my urethra, my ovaries, part of my intestines, my lymph nodes and a full hysterectomy.

“I was really cool about it all the whole time. You’ve got a 70 per cent chance of dying, the chance of living is 30 per cent.”

In an interview marking the 10th anniversary of Brexit, Sir John tells Greig that leaving Europe cost the UK £100bn per year in trade and £40bn per year in tax.

The former prime minister also calls for the UK to rejoin the single market within the next five years and suggests young people will lead the drive to rejoin the EU.

In his third short-listed interview, Greig speaks to to author Robert Harris who speaks out about Andy Burnham’s “desperate” attempt to play up his working class roots by adopting a “prolier-than-thou” attitude to appeal to the working class.

In the Foreign Affairs Journalism category, Trew was nominated alongside Ezz Al Din Abu Eisha and Nedal Hamdouna for their investigation into the killing of Independent Arabia photojournalist Mariam Abu Dagga.

Mariam, 33, was killed in an Israeli double tap strike on Nasser hospital in Gaza on 25 August 2025.

Trew, Al Din Abu Eisha and Hamdouna recreated a devastating picture of Mariam’s last moments by speaking to dozens of eye witnesses, whistleblowers and analysing visual analysis.

Trew also gathered heart-wrenching details of Mariam’s life to build up a powerful portrait of the woman who sacrificed everything - including being separated from her young son - to be a journalist in Gaza.

“Honestly… I was against my son being away from me, because he is quite literally my life itself,” Mariam had said about Ghaith, in tears, during one of the last interviews she gave shortly before she was killed.

“But every day, I was filming the martyrs - children, just children - to the point where one day I imagined Ghaith among them.”