Observer senior photo editor Michael Gordon won the Ashton Rhoden Award for News Photography for his picture ‘Portia Doodling’, at the 63rd Press Association of Jamaica awards ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston Friday night.

The photograph captured Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller doodling during the debate of a no-confidence motion brought against her Government in Parliament earlier this year.

Subsequent to the publication of the photograph on the front page of the Daily Observer on October 16, reporters were banned from the Hansard gallery of Parliament, which prompted discussions of infringement of press freedom.

The photograph also angered Simpson Miller, her supporters and senior Government technocrats who severely criticised the Observer for its publication.

Friday night, Dorraine Samuels, who read the citations said the winning photograph “should command a second and a third look”.

Another Observer photographer, Karl McLarty, won the Junior Dowie Award for Sports Photography, for his entry ‘Ball Grip’.

Radio Jamaica’s Dionne Jackson-Miller was named Journalist of

the Year.

The Beyond the Headlines radio show and All Angles television show host walked away with the top prize ahead of RJR’s Rohan Powell, the Observer’s Karyl Walker and the Sunday Herald’s Durant Pate.

“It’s always nice to know that people appreciate what you’re doing, especially when it comes from within the fraternity,” Jackson-Miller said.

Jackson-Miller added that the feeling within herself of a job well done after every interview, was sufficient reward.

A total of 13 awards were presented Friday night from what chief judge Ben Brodie reported to be the most entries ever received in a single year.

Brodie said there was “marked improvement in the quality of the entries”, but complained that the judges had to sift through piles of paper-based entries. He said submitting and reviewing entries could be made much easier if they were uploaded to the Internet.

“The Press Association needs a website,” Brodie said. “Get with it, don’t lag.”

Other winners included Television Jamaica’s Kirk Wright for his piece ‘Victoria Jubilee in Crisis’, which won the Hector Bernard/Theodore Sealy Award of News, and the Gleaner team of Daraine Luton, Keisha Hill and Glenroy Sinclair, who took the President’s Award for Investigative Journalism, for their series of stories, ‘Church Under Fire’.