Doncaster Free Press local democracy reporter honoured at awards ceremony

Harry Harrison, who was seconded to the DFP earlier this year as part of the BBC funded service, was named runner-up in the George Makin Award, which recognises newcomers to the reporting service and is named in honour of a former LDR.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service annual awards in Manchester recognises the cream of local democracy reporting following the inception of the scheme in 2018.

Harry is one of 165 local democracy reporters, each employed by a publisher in their respective area and covering their local councils.

The BBC-funded scheme has provided more than 500,000 stories up and down the country since it started in 2018.

Harry is tasked with reporting on City of Doncaster Council and the city’s mayor Ros Jones.

Jason Gibbins, the BBC’s senior news editor for the LDRS said: “It remains our pleasure to welcome Local Democracy Reporters to the annual conference and awards to celebrate their work. It’s work that is of huge public value and that matters deeply to people in their local communities.

“It was an additional pleasure this year to be able to celebrate the service reaching the remarkable milestone of publishing 500,000 stories since launch in 2018.

“We offer our thanks and congratulations to allwho have helped develop the scheme into such an important part of the UK’s media and political landscape.”

The conference took place at Media City, Salford, on November 13 and 14.

Speakers at the conference included Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and former West Midlands Mayor Sir Andy Street.

Harry joined the BBC’s Local Democracy Reporting Service, which has created up to 165 new journalism jobs, to help fill a gap in the reporting of local democracy issues across the UK.

The journalists are funded by the BBC as part of its latest Charter commitment, but are employed by regional news organisations.

Reporters are allocated to news organisations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and these organisations range from television and radio stations to online media companies and established regional newspaper groups.

Local Democracy Reporters cover top-tier local authorities, second-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.

Harry, who joined us from our sister paper, The Star in Sheffield, said on his arrival: “Political journalism is my absolute dream, so this step is so exciting for me.

Harry joined National World, then parent company of the Doncaster Free Press and The Star, in June 2022, working as part of the Sheffield live team, bringing breaking news and other news stories from across Sheffield on a day-to-day basis.

Harry also hosted The Star's Behind the Headlines podcast.

From Peterborough, he graduated from the University of Sheffield's Journalism Department in July 2022 and while a student, worked his way up to become editor of student newspaper Forge Press, seeing it nominated for Best Publication in his final year.

You can contact Harry, who replaced Shannon Mower, with your stories via [email protected]