The judging panel has been announced for this year’s Scottish Press Awards.

Entries have now closed for the Scottish Newspaper Society-organised event which will be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow on 16 April.

The judging panel will be chaired by Austin Lafferty, the former president of the Law Society of Scotland.

It also features Janette Harkness, former head of media for the Commonwealth Games; John Mullin, former Independent on Sunday editor; Andrew Wilson, managing partner of Charlotte Street Partners Strategic Communications consultancy; and Lindsay McGarvie, director of 3×1 Public Relations, also ex-political editor at the Sunday Mail.

Said Austin: “We’ve assembled an exceptionally strong panel of judges for this year’s event, and all of us are very much looking forward to evaluating what the cream of the Scottish newspaper industry has to offer.

“Each of us is a passionate advocate for Scotland’s newspaper industry, but as a group we contain a varied mix of unique and differing perspectives.”