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# Statistical Excellence in Journalism Awards: familiar faces among Royal Statistical Society's 2020 winners
- URL: https://interhacktives.mymagic.page/statistical-excellence-in-journalism-awards-2020-winners/
- Published: 2020-10-21T09:14:56.000Z
- Updated: 2020-10-21T09:14:56.000Z
- Description: The BBC and FT were prominent among the 2020 winners, and have historically dominated the awards
- Author: ben
- Tags: Data, News, data, data journalism, dataviz, #Migrated-1793717950415, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-11-03 14:59

The Royal Statistical Society [announced](https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2020/general-news/statistical-excellence-in-journalism-awards-2020-w/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) the winners of its Statistical Excellence in Journalism Awards for 2020 on Monday 12th October.

A small number of big media organisations have historically dominated the Awards since their inception in 2007\. The BBC has achieved 17 wins and 10 commendations over this 14-year period, with Radio 4 programme [*More or Less*](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qshd?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) alone contributing three wins and four commendations.

Among traditional print publications, the [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) leads with five wins and six commendations; the [Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/uk?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) has also had four wins and four commendations during this time.

![](http://www.interhacktives.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/RSS-SEIJ-Awards.png)

Both the BBC and the FT were well represented again in 2020.

The national broadcaster won in both the [*Investigative journalism*](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49662640?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) and [*Regional journalism*](https://youtu.be/g%5FNo7wm%5FYio?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) categories and was highly commended in the [*Explaining the facts*](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49798197?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) category. The FT did not achieve any wins this year, but received commendations in the [*Investigative journalism*](https://www.ft.com/content/2b97f6e6-189d-11e9-b93e-f4351a53f1c3?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) and [*Data visualisation*](https://www.ft.com/content/80269930-40c3-11e9-b896-fe36ec32aece?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) categories.

Alongside the familiar faces were a pair of publications whose work was featured by the RSS for the first time: British news website [UnHerd](https://unherd.com/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page), and the online iteration of German newspaper [Die Zeit](https://www.zeit.de/index?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page).

Zeit Online was winner in the *Data visualisation* category for its story [*The Millions Who Left*](https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2019-05/east-west-exodus-migration-east-germany-demography?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page), which explored migration patterns between East and West Germany from 1991 to 2017.

UnHerd took top prize in the *Explaining the facts* category for science writer Tom Chivers' piece [*Do we really have a ‘suicidal generation’?*](https://unherd.com/2019/02/do-we-really-have-a-suicidal-generation/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page). This was Chivers' second win in this category after receiving the same award in [2018](https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2018/general-news/stats-excellence-in-journalism-awards-2018-winners/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) for a [BuzzFeed](https://www.buzzfeed.com/news?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) article about [academic studies on 'drinking and health'](https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/theres-yet-another-study-out-about-drinking-and-health?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page); he also received an *Explaining the facts* commendation in 2017 for another BuzzFeed [piece](https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/jeremy-hunt-says-nhs-weekend-rotas-are-killing-people-is-he?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page).

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The Awards have been running annually since they were launched by the Society in 2007, when a single prize was awarded by the RSS to Ben Goldacre of The Guardian.

Between 2008 and 2010, separate prizes were awarded for *Broadcast* and for *Print/online articles*. Standalone categories for *Print* and *Online* were then introduced in 2011, before the Awards were restructured again in 2015\. An annual winner is now announced in four separate categories: *Data visualisation*, *Explaining the facts*, *Investigative journalism* and *Regional journalism*.