This special award takes its lead from the Pulitzer Prize and aims to recognise the outstanding act of public service journalism of the last year.
Entries cannot be submitted for this specific category, the winner will be chosen by the judges from all submitted entries.
The judges said Birrell has “managed to shine new light on the untold stories of victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with vivid reporting from the frontline of that conflict.
“He has also shown intellectual courage challenging orthodoxies around coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic and championed the rights of same-sex parents in Italy in the face of a far-right government crackdown.
“His range is incredible and his ability to bring public interest investigative journalism to a mass audience incomparable.”
The judges said: “Inspiration is the word which crops up again and again when colleagues spoke about former editor of ITV News Geoff Hill and his infectious passion for journalism.
“When Geoff stepped down from ITV in 2020 due to illness he said: ‘Please remember this: what we do – what you do – is a tremendous honour, and a privilege. You have a tremendous responsibility and with it enormous opportunity, one you must embrace each and every day’. They are words we would all do well to remember.
“The British Journalism Awards is proud to posthumously recognise Geoff Hill for its outstanding contribution to public interest journalism and the legacy he left with those who worked with him and remember him.”
