EDITORIALS in the Glen Innes Examiner that sought to unite the community during two weeks of tragedy last October have been recognised with a prestigious media industry award.

Examiner editor Tim Hughes has been named the winner of the 2008 Sir Harry Budd Memorial Award for Country Journalism with Fairfax Media regional and agricultural non-daily papers. The award was established in 1981 by the widow and family of Sir Harry Budd to honour his life and work as a prominent and influential editor, businessman and parliamentarian representing the NSW north coast. The award seeks to recognise outstanding journalism in regional and rural Australia, in Fairfax non-daily, regional and agricultural newspapers, outside the metropolitan areas of Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle, Wollongong and Canberra.

The Examiner’s editorials were written as part of the newspaper’s coverage of two fatal car accidents within six days last October, which killed five local men. Mr Hughes said the newspaper tried to navigate the community through the tragedies with compassion while urging unity and not division, at a time when feelings and anger were raw. In both cases there was also an aim to try and pass on to readers messages from the incidents - the need for greater understanding of (and resourcing for) mental health, and raise debate about issues involving teenage drinking and driving.

The judges, in making the award, said when communities are hit by tragedies they look to their local newspaper for more than stories and pictures to describe what happened.

“Its residents need to make sense of it all, or at least seek some answers when their world has been turned upside down. It is about understanding your community and gauging its needs.

“Tim Hughes confronted this challenge... his coverage taken from the different perspectives of those involved or associated with the tragic events provided a support mechanism for this small community.”

Mr Hughes will be presented with the award at a function in Glen Innes on August 12.