The journalists who overturned a ban on naming judges in the case of 10-year-old Sara Sharif have won this year’s Press Award for Campaign of the Year.
Hannah Summers and Louise Tickle were praised by the award’s judges for their “terrific and dogged journalism” in the pursuit of transparency in family courts. Their work was “powerful and challenging”, the judges said.
Sara was murdered by her father and stepmother in 2023. When a judge imposed an unprecedented anonymity order banning the media from naming three Family Court judges involved in the case, Summers and Tickle challenged it. The order was overturned, with the judge ruling it unlawful due to serious procedural irregularity and unfairness to the media.
Earlier, the duo had self-funded the first media application around disclosure of documents from family court proceedings concerning Sara’s welfare, and were the only media organisation to successfully apply for disclosure of, and permission to publish, a number of sensitive documents.
The disclosures led to widespread national coverage and, said The Press Awards, significantly improved public understanding of the state’s role in the decisions that preceded Sara’s death.
Tickle has an impressive record of reporting on family cases for national newspapers. Last month, she successfully overturned reporting restrictions in a child welfare case which included information relating to national security.
In a witness statement in the case, Tickle said: “From the many hundreds of cases of which I become aware every year, I must very carefully select one or two which I know will interest national news editors because they have an especially compelling public interest element, which I can argue will justify the effort and investment required to make the application to report it, despite the risk of not succeeding.”
