The Rory Peck Trust: Award 1998

The 1998 Rory Peck Award Brochure

From the Patron – an appeal

Two or three years ago the Rory Peck Trust* seemed a small, but worthy, enterprise on the fringes of the huge news industry. Today we can see that the Award and the Trust fulfil a need. If it did not exist it would have had to be invented. In short, it was a good idea that has survived and begun to prosper.

The Award is our showpiece and we are grateful to Panasonic Broadcast for sponsoring it. This evening we remind ourselves not only of the increasingly important role freelance journalists play in gathering news in an unstable world, but also of the consistently high quality of work leading freelancers produce. It reminds us, too, that the light they shine into murky corners is the victims’ best defence against oppression.

The Trust’s activities are expanding. We are now a recognised charity. The insurance and training scheme for which we have long campaigned is being piloted, an initiative we welcome and support. Our newly incorporated state allows us to expand our charitable work, enabling us to help the freelance cameramen and women themselves.

But we need to do more. There is a clear need and the Trust must increase its capacity to help. For this we require new and increased sponsorship. I am sure that organisations involved in broadcast communications, and those that use freelance journalists will in particular view our appeal sympathetically.

I hope, too, that you will use this evening to thank all those who have worked so hard in the last year to establish the Trust on a sound footing, particularly the Chairman, Lucian Hudson, the Trustees, the Committee and our remarkable Director, Tina Carr.

Viscount Cranborne

*We are now a charitable limited company: the Rory Peck Trust. All our activities will be covered by this and by the Trust’s associated company the Rory Peck Trading Company Ltd.

The Rory Peck Awards Brochure 1998