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More success for Don

Matlock Mercury editor Don Hale has now scooped FIVE awards in the wake of his campaign to free convicted murderer Stephen Downing – and he’s nominated for even more.

Apart from his regional BT Media Award for Midlands Weekly Journalist of the Year, he was presented last week with a special award for outstanding campaigning journalism at the British Press Awards, and the Big Difference Award for Print/Broadcast Media at the Big Issue, Big Difference Awards.


  • Don’s mantlepiece is
    set to take the strain!
  • He also holds the Journalist of the Year title from the What the Papers Say awards, and has been named the Observer newspaper’s Man of the Year.

    The whirl of facing the press after Stephen Downing’s release on bail pending his appeal has been replaced with meeting and dining with the glitterati of the nation’s press as he completed a hat-trick of press awards on three consecutive nights.

    Following his win at the regional BT Awards, Don will be heading for the national final in London in June but before that, the first of many other trips out of Derbyshire – to the NUJ Conference in Scarborough, where he is due to pick up a special Gold Badge for outstanding service to the NUJ.

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