The eighth Highlands and Islands Media Awards have taken place with reporters from the very north of Scotland picking up awards.

Noel Donaldson of the John O’Groat Journal scooped both the top prize of Journalist of the Year and the Reporter of the Year awards.

The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald picked up the award for the Weekly Newspaper of the Year and the Community Newspaper of the Year award went to Am Paipear, Benbecula, a publication from the Uist Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Lorraine Shearer, of the Orcadian, collected the Feature Writer of the Year award, while Sports Reporter of the Year went to Jim Tait from the Shetland Times.

The Shetland Times’s Erland Barclay was named Local Newspaper Reporter of the Year, and Helen Bushnell, from the Highland News, won the Young Reporter of the Year award. Phil Downie, a freelancer from Inverness, won the Photographer of the Year award.

The awards were judged by Gordon Fyfe, chairman of the Highland Council; Craig Anderson of the BBC; John Ross of the Scotsman; David Ross of the Herald and Donald MacNeill of Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Guinness UDV sponsored the awards and put up a prize fund of £1,400. The Journalist of the Year winner received £400, the Newspaper and Community Newspaper of the Year each received £200 and category winners all receive £100 as well as a bottle of a Classic Malt and a framed certificate.

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