Nicola Barry was one of Scotland’s most successful and best known journalists and authors. She died in January 2017 at the age of 66. In a career spanning over 40 years, Nicola won around 30 UK and Scottish press awards, mainly writing about social issues. She won Columnist of the Year while at the Press & Journal in three consecutive years. Nicola worked for almost all Scotland’s main newspapers, including the Edinburgh Evening News, the Scotsman, the Scottish Sunday Express, the Daily Record and the Press and Journal. She was Editor of The Big Issue. During her career as a newspaper columnist and features writer, Nicola was driven by a passion to help the underdog, to give a voice to those who had none. 

The Nicola Barry Award is open to all women journalists of any age working in print and online media in Scotland deserving of recognition for their work in issue-led reportage or commentary. This reflects the late Nicola Barry's passion for standing up against injustice in the workplace and in the wider world through her writing.

This annual prize was first presented at the Scottish Press Awards in 2018. It goes to the journalist whose submissions most effectively highlight injustices, curbs on freedom or other forms of discrimination. These were topics Nicola regularly confronted in her life as a journalist. The award came about after Nicola’s husband, Alastair Murray, approached Women in Journalism Scotland’s committee asking if it could explore ways of ensuring his late wife’s legacy in journalism would continue while supporting other women in the profession.

It was won in 2018 by Dani Garavelli and in 2019 by Karin Goodwin

DANI Garavelli has been announced as the winner of the inaugural Nicola Barry Award at this year’s Scottish Press Awards ceremony.

This new peer-led prize aims to encourage the kind of elegant prose and campaigning reportage for which the late Nicola Barry, an award-winning columnist and feature writer, was renowned.

The award has been established by Women in Journalism Scotland, and was presented to Ms Garavelli, a freelance journalist who writes a regular column for Scotland on Sunday, by Nicola Barry’s husband, Alastair Murray. Nicola Barry died in January 2017 at the age of 66.

The runner-up was Sunday Post reporter Marion Scott.

Presenting the award, Murray, who is also a journalist, said: “It would be easy to ask for an award for every journalist who dies, but there are so few of us who could legitimately be described as exceptional, brilliant even. And those words apply to Nicola Barry.

“She was an ardent feminist long before it was fashionable and an advocate of women’s rights. She spoke out against injustice in the workplace and in the wider world through her columns.

“I see many of the same traits in the writing of Dani Garavelli, who in her writing, combines insight and passion with equal fluency.”

Women in Journalism Scotland co-chair Libby Brooks said: “Nicola Barry was a much-admired columnist, and in Dani Garavelli we found a writer whose depth of analysis, range of subject matter and quality of prose likewise set her apart.

“It’s acknowledged that Garavelli is one of the finest columnists writing for the Scottish press today of either gender. Never polemical for the sake of it, always intelligent and considered, Garavelli’s approach to her chosen subjects is as humane as it is illuminating.”

Of runner-up Marion Scott, Brooks, said: “Nicola Barry made it her business to amplify the voices of those who had not been heard by the establishment or the public.

“Marion Scott’s tenacious reporting of the Denise Clair rape case, from its early days, was a prime example of doing just that, and sticking with a story despite the odds. In the end, she saw her subject win a significant legal victory, which has set a challenging precedent for rape law in Scotland.”

Shelley Jofre, Investigations Editor at BBC Scotland and co-chair of Women in Journalism Scotland, said: “This award is exactly the kind of thing which Women in Journalism Scotland was set up to achieve.

“Since our launch by the First Minister in November 2016, our membership continues to grow. We’ve held a series of successful events aimed at helping boost the skills, knowledge and confidence of women journalists working across Scotland.

“Stronger Voice for Women on Air training events have been held in both Glasgow and Dundee, and WiJ Scotland has been a partner in the BBC’s prestigious Expert Women Scotland programme, an integral part of the broadcaster’s aim to achieve a 50:50 gender balance by April 2019.

“We have also held networking events across Scotland, with more in the pipeline. Our aim is to create an easy-to-access database of women experts which we hope will become the essential go-to guide for all broadcasters in Scotland.

“Since WiJ Scotland started up, there has been a sea-change in the way in which women’s voices are heard. As an organisation, we will continue to lobby for change and, most importantly, offer support for women in the media at every stage of their career.”

John McLellan, director of the Scottish Newspaper Society, said: “Having worked with them both, Dani Garavelli is a very worthy first winner of the Nicola Barry Award.

“I know from personal experience that Nicola was a very special talent and her empathy for the dispossessed, vulnerable and excluded shone through in her writing.

“The SNS is delighted to be working with Women in Journalism to encourage new female writers and to keep Nicola’s memory alive.”