PINF's Deputy Director, Joe Mitchell, announces the shortlist for the Tenacious Award and introduces this year's judging panel with the unenviable job of deciding the winners.
Last November, we were delighted to announce another round of the Tenacious Journalist Awards, funded by Changing Ideas.
The first cohort of journalists achieved some great things, and we were delighted by the strength of the 100 applications that came in for the 2026 Awards.
The field was extremely strong, with some terrific ideas for stories and potential social impact. We have now managed to slim the list of potential winners, who will now go to a panel of independent judges to recommend a final ten.
The top-scoring applications focused tightly on a specific issue for a one-off project, versus a wide theme or general area. And they were able to demonstrate some history of prior social impact, explaining how a story the journalist researched and published led to a societal benefit.
They also had a clear plan for impact — outlining precisely what the outputs would be, how those outputs would lead to changes, and what the ultimate public benefit of those changes would be.
So, without further ado, here’s the shortlist for the Tenacious Journalist Awards 2026:
The shortlist
- Adele Walton, freelance
- Annahita Moradi, freelance
- Ben Gartside, freelance
- Clare Carlile, DeSmog
- Cormac Kehoe, freelance
- Eve Livingston, freelance
- Evie Breese, freelance
- Hannah Fearn, freelance
- Harriet Jane Grant, freelance
- Jade-Ruyu Yan, freelance
- Jasmine Owens, freelance
- Jim Waterson, London Centric
- John Domokos, freelance
- Katharine Quarmby, freelance
- Lizzie Rivera, Live Frankly
- Matei Rosca, reporter.london
- Matty Edwards, freelance
- Maxence Peigne, freelance
- Michael Casey, Your Harlow
- Peter Brooks, Materiality
- Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, freelance
- Rhys Everquill, Leicester Gazette
- Rosie Taylor, freelance
- Sarah Ward, NN Journal
- Tom Wall, freelance
- Yemisi Bokinni, freelance
Congratulations to them all!
The judges
A crack team of judges are now working to whittle the list down to around ten journalists who will make up the second cohort. Those judges are:
Agatha Scaggiante is a 2025 Tenacious Journalist awardee. She investigated dangerous synthetic opioids in east London for the Tower Hamlets Slice. Her reporting led to an improvement in local naloxone (overdose antidote) availability and public awareness, and inspired further reporting, including by Channel 4 and the BBC. Today Agatha writes freelance for a wide range of publications, including Dazed Digital, South London Press, Thred Magazine, and Waging Nonviolence. She is interested in grassroots activism, local politics and subcultures.
Meirion Jones is an investigative journalist who worked at the BBC on the Today programme, Newsnight and Panorama and then became the editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. He has written for many papers including the Guardian, Telegraph and Mail. He features extensively in Explosive Lies, a recently released successful podcast series about his investigation into the bogus bomb detectors scandal. The rogue journalist Mazher Mahmood (AKA The Fake Sheikh) was jailed after Jones made a Panorama about him. Jones won the London Press Awards Scoop of the Year for his part in uncovering Jimmy Savile. Jones has investigated everything from Trafigura's dumping of toxic waste in Africa and how Britain helped Israel’s nuclear weapons programme to the spy cops affair.
Katherine Sladden is a campaigns strategist advising some of the biggest and most high-profile social justice and women’s rights campaigns in the UK. As founding Campaigns Director at Change.org UK, Katherine delivered multiple winning campaigns driving growth for the world’s largest petition site and biggest activism platform in the UK. Katherine has worked with Grenfell United, providing strategic campaigns advice to the survivors and bereaved families of the Grenfell Tower fire. As one of the people that set up Change.org UK, Katherine worked on some high-profile campaigns including putting a woman on a banknote, No More Page 3 and changing the law for 16-year-olds in police custody. Katherine has worked with and advised leading international purpose driven organisations and global activists alike, including the ONE Campaign, Virgin Unite and Nobel prize nominee Jaha Durereh.
David Graham is the founder of Changing Ideas, Law for Change and the Tenacious Awards. He originally qualified as an accountant and has been involved with many different businesses including property, consultancy, technology, retail and manufacturing. Following a varied career, his life had an about turn in 2003 after his son became paralysed. That led him to completing an MA in photojournalism and working with charities before founding his own charity, Changing Ideas, in 2007. David’s passion is for backing individuals and organisations who can make a difference, but need resources to be able try things out, to take risks, and achieve impact.
We’re very grateful to the judges for contributing their time and wisdom to the cause — they face a difficult challenge to choose from such a strong field.
The final list of winners will be announced later this month — make sure to sign up to PINF’s newsletter to get the latest updates.
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