Orwell Prize opens to entries for 2012

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The Orwell Prize for 2012 has opened to entries, with the journalism prize to be judged by former winner and

professor of journalism at Kingston University

Brian Cathcart and former BBC News and Current Affairs director Ian Hargreaves. Cathcart is also former deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday and a founder of the Hacked Off campaign, while Hargreaves is professor of digital economy at Cardiff University, a former editor of the Independent and the New Statesman and earlier this year completed a government-commissioned review of intellectual property. At a launch event last night titled "Writing the Riots", the award organisers also announced the judges for the two other prizes offered in the annual awards, the book prize and the blog prize. The blog prize will be judged by Suzanne Moore, a journalist currently writing for the Guardian and Mail on Sunday, and blogger Hopi Sen who was shortlisted for the prize in 2010. Judges for the book prize include former winner Miranda Carter and Sameer Rahim, assistant books editor at the Telegraph. An additional third judge is also due to be announced soon. Each winner, judged to have produced work which "comes closest to George Orwell's ambition 'to make political writing into an art'", will be awarded £3,000 and a plaque. Entries can be submitted until 18 January next year, with an online entry form available for the first time, and longlists will be announced on 28 March. Winners will be announced on 23 May at a ceremony in London. The winner for the journalism prize in 2011 was

columnist Jenni Russell, who judges called "the stand-out journalist in an outstanding field". The Prize found itself in the headlines in September this year when the 2008 winner, Johann Hari, returned his award ahead of the Prize Council announcing that they had decided to rescind it. Hari's returned the prize after allegations of plagiarism which affected his submission. He has pledged to donate the prize money to charity free-speech charity English PEN, of which Orwell was a member.