THE Mail & Guardian is the best English- language international newspaper in the world. This is the assessment of the International Press Directory, which honoured the M&G in its International Press Awards, presented in London on Tuesday night.
The M&G came first in the English language section of the Johnsons International Press Awards, beating the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, and the International Express.
The citation for the award acknowledged that ”For 10 years the Mail & Guardian, or the Weekly Mail as it was known until 1995, has represented the voice of independent journalism in South Africa. Under apartheid the Weekly Mail was a fierce critic of the inequalities of the old regime. It is no less independent under the new government, and an increasingly close relationship with the Guardian Weekly has given the Mail & Guardian equal validity in the new South Africa, as well as a broad international outlook.”
The M&G was also highly commended in the best editor category of the competition — won by Richard Longhurst of the British magazine Net — and in the freedom of the press category, won by the Indonesian paper Suara Independent.