The Daily Express has been honoured with a major award for our Give Us Our Last Rights crusade to legalise assisted dying. Health editor Hanna Geissler and new formats editor Dan Dove picked up the Public Service Journalism prize at the British Journalism Awards on Thursday night. The judges said: “Since early 2022, the Daily Express has led a campaign that has given a voice to some of the most vulnerable and forgotten members of society.
“It has explored every angle of a difficult debate, putting the voice of those affected at the heart of the story, and undoubtedly played a huge role in securing a major change in the law.” During almost four years of campaigning, the Express has shared the heartbreaking stories of those who are terminally ill, have seen loved ones suffer bad deaths, or had relatives travel to Dignitas, to make the case for change.
A petition we started two years ago quickly gathered more than 200,000 signatures, prompting a Westminster Hall debate and reigniting the conversation about assisted dying in Parliament.
We also joined forces with Dame Esther Rantzen after she revealed her own terminal lung cancer diagnosis.
The veteran broadcaster has courageously spoken out on behalf of all those facing the end of life, becoming a leading voice in the push for a more compassionate law.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who introduced the assisted dying Bill, praised our coverage for highlighting the human stories behind efforts to change the law.
She said: “Well done to the Express. It has been an amazing campaign, and the Express has done a brilliant job in the face of quite a lot of hostility from certain sections of the media who haven’t engaged with the issue on the human level that the Express have.
“You have told the stories of people who need and want this change in the law, and I pay a massive tribute to you and thank you for doing that.”
Express editor-in-chief Geoff Maynard said the win was “a just reward for a three-year-long campaign that is going to change the law on assisted dying and finally give terminally ill people the choice they want at the end of their lives”.
He added: “The campaign has been run with decency, respect and skill by Hanna with the cooperation of the charity Dignity in Dying and of course Dame Esther Rantzen.
“Her excellent reporting has been backed up by Dan’s amazing video skills to really drive the campaign message home across all platforms.
“They are both extremely talented young journalists, and I am hugely proud of them and the whole Express team that kept pushing the story.”
