'Independent' titles win coveted media awards

The Independent on Sunday scooped two prestigious awards at the British Environment and Media awards in London last night.

The newspaper won Newspaper of the Year award and was commended for its commitment to environmental issues, its investigative approach and increasing interest in environmental issues among young audiences.

Geoffrey Lean, the newspaper's environment editor, was named environmental journalist of the year. Judges said he had been vindicated for his opinions on foot-and-mouth. He was also commended for the newspaper's asthma campaign, articles on whales, and pollution in Antarctica.

Mr Lean was commended for "cleverly linking issues on the environment to issues of topical concern", they said.

At the Media Week awards last night, The Independent won Tactical Sales Pitch of the Year for a 48-hours magazine produced for teletext holidays, which was awarded to Claudette Lewis of the newspaper's sales team. The Independent was the only national newspaper to pick up an award at the ceremony.