Computer Weekly wins prestigious journalism award

Computer Weekly has won a prestigious award for its journalism.

Freelance contributor and Computer Weekly blogger Mark Ballard won the Best Cybercrime Feature of the Year prize at this year's BT Information Security Journalism Awards.

The winning article, Mckinnon charges exaggerated by government, published in Computer Weekly last year, was an in-depth analysis of the evidence used to try to justify the proposed extradition of British hacker Gary McKinnon to the US. Ballard was able to show that the case against McKinnon - who has been fighting extradition for 10 years - was based on dubious charges and doubts over evidence.

Ballard received his prize from awards judge Professor Fred Piper from the Information Security Group at Royal Holloway, University of London (pictured).

Chairman of the judging panel Ray Stanton, vice president of professional services at BT, said: "The best cybercrime feature award was new to the 2011 awards and devised to recognise excellent journalism on what is an increasingly important issue. In terms of timeliness, impact and contribution Mark's article was the clear winner."