Minnows prove media heavyweights can still be beaten

The winners of this year's European Online Journalism Awards were spread across the continent with Finnish, German, Dutch and British websites honoured for excellence.

Predictably, the BBC won four of the 19 categories in the competition, including the award for best overall journalism service which it shared with TVnewsweb.com.

While online heavyweights like the BBC scooped most of the categories, the awards showed a commitment to excellence among smaller independent web organisations and sites.

Miroslav Filipovic from the highly rated Institute for War and Peace Reporting won Internet Journalist of the Year. His son Sacha accepted the award on his father's behalf as Mr Filipovic has been arrested for his reporting of the Kosovo conflict.

The Mount Everest Expedition site won the award for Best Innovation in Online Journalism as well as Best Use of Mobile Connectivity.

'Conceived by journalists for journalists' the awards 'focus on online journalism, that is, the practice of telling good stories using digital tools and techniques in an online medium'. The awards were presented at a ceremony at the NetMedia 2000 conference held in July and included:

• Best General News Presentation and Best News Design and Navigation were won by Beme.com launched by IPC.

• Best News Story was won by BBC for its coverage of the Kosovo Conflict.

• Best News Story Broken on the Net was won by the BBC for its coverage of the Paddington Rail Crash.

• Outstanding Contribution to Online Journlism in Europe was taken by Central Europe Review taking the award in front of Hors les Murs and the BBC News Online.

• The BBC NewsOline Sports Section took the award for best overall sports reporting.

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