A television programme on fraudulent and exaggerated personal injury claims has emerged as overall winner of the Law Society's 2003 Justice Media Awards.
The RTÉ Primetime special "Sue Nation", by reporter Ken O'Shea and producer Michael Kealy, showed hidden camera footage of apparently fit and healthy people who had made large personal injury claims stressing their incapacity.
It was "riveting television", according to the society's director general, Mr Ken Murphy.
He said the society disagreed with some of the programme's analysis, and with the insurance industry's claim "that lawyers were somehow responsible for the huge hikes in insurance premiums".
But he acknowledged that the programme was "an excellent example of investigative reporting".
The radio broadcasting award went to Emma O'Kelly of RTÉ's Morning Ireland for an interview with a migrant worker.
Eileen Magnier of RTÉ received a certificate of merit for a television report on the Garda treatment of the McBrearty family in Donegal.
The daily newspaper award went to Vincent Power of the Evening Echo for articles on the justice system, while Carol Coulter of The Irish Times received a certificate for an article on the identification of sex offenders in criminal cases.
John Burns of the Sunday Times won the non-daily newspaper section, for an article criticising changes to the Freedom of Information Act, with certificates going to Kieron Wood of the Sunday Business Post and Tony Galvin of the Tuam Herald. Mairead Carey won an award for a Magill article on allegations of Garda brutality, while a certificate went to Anne O'Carroll of Consumer Choice magazine. The award in the books category went to Damian McHugh, for Going to Court: a consumer's guide published by FirstLaw.