Two award-winning journalists who took voluntary redundancy from The Herald in Glasgow are to use their payouts to help highlight human rights issues.

Reporter Billy Briggs and photographer Angela Catlin are to team up to travel the world and report on human rights abuses.

They will visit regions such as South America and Central Asia, covering issues that receive little press exposure.

Billy told HoldtheFrontPage: “There are some publications that do regularly cover these issues, but the climate just now is more geared towards lifestyle coverage and we want to keep these issues in the frame.”

Billy and Angela have previously worked together on a number of projects producing reportage on topics such as the plight of the Roma in Slovakia and the rise of neo-Nazism in Russia.

For the latter they spent a week in Moscow interviewing fascists and the victims of racist attacks.

During one interview, a leading member of Russian Goal – a Moscow-based neo-Nazi paramilitary group – told Billy that he wanted his country rid of “niggers, Jews, the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, people from the Caucasus: any f***er who is not white and Russian”.

The journalists’ work was recognised by Amnesty International through two awards, and Billy was also runner-up for Amnesty International’s Gaby Rado Memorial Award for a series of reports on human rights issues which appeared in The Herald Magazine.

Catlin has worked in places such as Colombia, Rwanda and Cambodia, and has been voted UK Feature Photographer of the Year and Scottish Photographer of the Year on two occasions. She received a special award this year for her photography in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, following the tsunami.

Billy said: “We are working on a number of projects but would like anyone who has knowledge of an issue that has not received attention to contact us.

“We are also seeking sponsorship from ethically minded businesses.”

Angela said: “This is an opportunity to highlight forgotten human rights issues around the world.”

Billy had worked at The Herald for four years, having previously worked for The Irvine Times, while Angela spent 14 years as a photographer at The Herald.

Both journalists took voluntary redundancy earlier this year to go freelance, and they have been in talks with human rights organisations and several publications which have expressed interest in publishing their work.