The awards recognise creative and excellent journalism for both news and current affairs.
The awards, which are given out in a glittering ceremony at the London Hilton on Park Lane, include categories for Television Journalist of the Year, Scoop of the Year, Network Presenter and Young Talent.
Booking is now open for the black tie ceremony, which includes a three course meal ahead of the presentation.
The new position has been created to demonstrate the channel’s commitment to reporting on climate change.
Thomas-Peter will leave her position as Sky News’s US correspondent, after covering hard-hitting stories across the US, including the #MeToo movement, the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the Trump presidency, the opioid drugs crisis and the rise of the far right.
The reporter also sailed around Britain as part of an expedition for a documentary analysing the effects of ocean plastics on the environment.
Now 51 she’s wondering if that sort of rootlessness will eventually get tiresome. “It’s part of this life, and that would not suit everyone,” she reflects. “There’s probably a limit to the number of times that you can do it or that you should do it. That said, I keep doing it…”
Nawal's impressive journalism career started when she travelled back home to Yemen after completing a degree in Economics with Politics at the University of Nottingham. Back in Yemen, she began to make her own videos about the Arab Spring.
Hewlett, who died last week, charted his battle against cancer through his columns in The Observer and in interviews with Eddie Mair on BBC Radio Four.
Channel 4 News took home a raft of awards including Daily News Programme of the Year and Television Journalist of the Year, which was awarded to Matt Frei.
Syrian film-maker Waad al-Kateab was at the ceremony having been granted a visa by the Foreign Office to travel here after leaving Syria. She received the Young Talent of the Year Award and was also awarded the prize for Camera Operator of the Year – the first time this award has been won by a female.
“I love this business” beams Harry Gration. “I’ve been to nine Olympic Games. I’ve been all around the world to cover BBC Sport.”
Gration is one of the old campaigners, with almost 40 years of broadcasting under his belt.
“I never really envisaged that I’d end up presenting a television programme as I do every night. It happened as a dream and it has turned into a reality.”
The RTS award win is Gration’s second in the category, having won first in 2015. “It’s beyond expectation to be honest. You tend to get these once in a lifetime.”
“I’d been at my dad’s paper since I could walk,” ITV Calendar’s Duncan Wood recalls. “I was smelling the ink, seeing the presses rolling…”
It’s a nostalgic image, and one that drove Wood into journalism.
After flunking both his O-Levels and A-Levels, he got a job at his dad’s paper, the Sunderland Echo.
“My dad hated journalists,” he laughs. “He went from office boy to Managing Director. He hated them with a passion.”
