Celebrating young talent at the RTS Awards

This year’s RTS Award has been presented to STV News journalist, Peter Smith.

The award, which is given in memory of John Schofield,  has a new name –  the Young Talent of the Year Award – but is still given in recognition of the best work during the year. 

The award, which carries with it a bursary from the Trust, was presented to Peter in recognition of his coverage of the upheavals on the board of troubled Rangers Football Club and a special investigation into the links between cannabis cultivation and people trafficking.

The judges singled out an interview with then Rangers chief executive Charles Green that made Peter’s an “outstanding” entry: “The winner’s dogged refusal to be deflected or deterred marked him out as the winner of this year’s Young Talent Award,” they said.

Peter, who studied a postgraduate diploma in broadcast journalism at Cardiff University, said: “This is a tremendous honour. I am delighted and privileged to receive this award given the level of competition and the calibre of previous winners.

“In such a competitive industry, I am thankful to the John Schofield Trust for sponsoring this Royal Television Society award. It is a unique platform for young journalists to have our work recognised by more experienced peers. That kind of recognition really has the potential to be life changing and I hope I can live up to the expectation that comes with it.”

Glasgow-born Peter joined STV News in 2011, and works on the popular current affairs programme, Scotland Tonight, which launched two years ago. He has covered the developments at Rangers since the club went into administration in February 2012.

“The support of my producer and editor at STV while I was working on the reports which earned me this award has been invaluable,” he said “They trusted me and provided me with the opportunity to take on big stories which has now been rewarded by the RTS.”

This year’s shortlist was another strong one, with Catrin Nye of BBC News and Tom Rayner, Sky News’ Middle East news editor, also nominated.