Non-journalist bloggers up against mainstream rivals in Orwell prize's new category

The first ever blogger category in the Orwell Prize 2009 sees a mix of 12 professional journalist and non-journalist bloggers in its longlist, which was announced today.

Political bloggers, such as Iain Dale and Hopi Sen, will battle journalists, including blogs from Paul Mason and Andrew Sparrow, to get to the next stage.

"In the year we ran Orwell's diary as a blog, the entries that were selected had to do something distinctive - react immediately to events, take risks, speak to their readers and capture what it means to be at the centre of a story or situation as it evolves," said Jean Seaton, the director of the prize said, in a release.

"But the best of them do what reporting does - tell us something we need to know, but often with a highly personal voice."

The traditional political journalism prize sees a range of publications longlisted, including two from the Observer: Catherine Bennett and Henry Porter; and two from the Independent: Patrick Cockburn and Paul Vallely. Journalists Nick Davies and Patrick Cockburn are among the entrants on the list for the book prize.

Shortlists will be announced on March 25 2009. The full longlists for the three categories can be seen below.

Journalism Prize long list
Catherine Bennett - The Observer
Martin Bright - New Statesman, Channel 4 Dispatches
Patrick Cockburn - The Independent, London Review of Books
Lindsey Hilsum - New Statesman
Peter Hitchens - The Mail on Sunday
Donald Macintyre - The Independent
Peter Oborne - Daily Mail, Channel 4 Dispatches, Prospect
Arkady Ostrovsky - The Economist, Prospect
Henry Porter - The Observer
Jonathan Steele - The Guardian
Paul Vallely - The Independent, The Independent on Sunday
Michela Wrong - New Statesman, Financial Times, Slate

The Blog Prize long list
Alix Mortimer - The People's Republic of Mortimer
Andrew Sparrow - Guardian Politics Blog
Chekov - Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness
Hopi Sen - Blog from the backroom
Iain Dale - Iain Dale's Diary
Jack Night - Night Jack
Mark Easton - BBC News - Mark Easton's UK
Neil Robertson - The Bleeding Heart Show
Oliver Kamm - Times Online - Oliver Kamm
Paul Mason - BBC Newsnight - Idle Scrawl
The Heresiarch - Heresy Corner
Tom Harris MP - And another thing...

The Book Prize longlist
Andrew Brown - Fishing in Utopia
Patrick Cockburn - Muqtada al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq
Nick Davies - Flat Earth News
Eva Figes - Journey to Nowhere
Matthew Green - The Wizard of the Nile
Diarmuid Jeffreys - Hell's Cartel
Tony Judt - Reappraisals
Hatim Kanaaneh - A Doctor in Galilee
Sara Maitland - A Book of Silence
Owen Matthews - Stalin's Children
Mark Mazower - Hitler's Empire
Hsiao-Hung Pai - Chinese Whispers
Ahmed Rashid - Descent Into Chaos
David Runciman - Political Hypocrisy
Philippe Sands - Torture Team
Jeremy Seabrook - The Refuge and the Fortress
Mark Thompson - The White War
A. N. Wilson - Our Times

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