BBC Journalist John Humphrys to Get Top Broadcast Nod

LONDON -- Veteran BBC journalist and one of the main presenters of the news program BBC Radio 4 Today, John Humphrys, is to receive the Broadcasting Press Guild’s Harvey Lee Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting.

The annual honorary plaudit is one of several awards dished out during a lunch time ceremony in the British capital, with other categories voted on by the BPG membership of U.K. broadcast and media journalists.

Humphrys, whose resume boasts roles as a BBC reporter, presenter and interviewer for more than 40 years, joined Today as a presenter in January 1987.

He is credited with playing a key role in the resignation of BBC director-general George Entwistle after interviewing his then boss about the handling of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

Following the run-in on air with Humphrys the morning of Nov. 11, Entwistle resigned from his post the same evening after just 54 days in the job.

Humphrys has also worked as a BBC foreign correspondent in America and Africa, a diplomatic correspondent and has been a presenter of the Nine O'Clock News.

The award citation says “his tenacious interviewing of politicians and others in the news has made his name a byword for fearless inquisition.”

The BPG award is given in memory of Lee, a former Daily Telegraph media writer and  leading light of the BPG, who died at the age of 41.

Previous recipients include David Frost, Terry Wogan, Melvyn Bragg, Charles Wheeler, Beryl Vertue and Michael Grade.

The 39th BPG awards will be dished out March 14 in central London at a ceremony sponsored by Discovery Channel, a part of Discovery Networks.