UTV has taken two top awards in a major TV and film awards event that took place yesterday as part of an international broadcasters event that is held annually in the USA.

One of several accolades at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) event for UK and Irish broadcasters, a 'Gold' went to reporter Mark McFadden for the station's Insight: Bloody Justice programme under the heading of Best News Reporter/Correspondent and a 'Silver' was awarded to another Insight programme, Bloody Justice.

The International TV & Film Awards took place in Las Vegas on Tuesday night and saw both UTV reporter Mark McFadden (pictured) and Insight producer Paul Clarke win the accolades.

The UTV North West correspondent picked up the World Gold Journalist medal for his coverage of the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday.

He also presented Bloody Justice, the UTV Insight investigation into Saville - the programme, produced and directed by UTV Executive Producer Paul Clarke, was broadcast on the eve of the publication of Lord Saville's report into the Bloody Sunday shootings.

It took the World Silver medal in the documentary section.

Paul Clarke (not the well known news anchor) said it was a great achievement for UTV: "Our programme asked the difficult questions and looked at what Saville would have to conclude. It's great that the International Awards judges recognised our documentary as strong journalism and excellent programme-making."

Delighted with his gold, Mark added: "I'm honoured by the award. To work on projects like this is a great privilege and responsibility. But it's very much a team effort.

"It's hard to believe that I'm in Las Vegas picking up a world award.

"I know, however, that we've won these prizes thanks to the hard work, creativity and passion of all our colleagues at UTV."

The International TV & Film Awards are organised as part of the New York Film Festival (NYF) and coincide with the annual NAB convention - an event that attracts almost 100,000 television professionals from around the globe.

Now entering its 54th year, the total number of entries continues to grow, now representing over 35 different countries, making the NYF Awards one of the most well known and widely respected competitions on the globe.

Last year, it combined both the Television Programme Awards and the Film & Video Awards, thus creating one of the world's largest international competitions dedicated to both the TV and film industries.

Other Accolades

The Irish Republic's State broadcaster, RTÉ, achieved a Finalist Certificate for the Raw mini series.

ITV Studios (for BBC4) got a Gold World Medal for the Road To Coronation Street and BBC Worldwide won a Silver World Medal for its Leaders of WWII Image Promotion.

A Bronze World Medal went to BBC Worldwide for Crime & Justice II for Best Editing and BBC Worldwide added a Finalist Certificate for CBeebies Recruitment Campaign Mr. Ted on Animation (Non-Computer): Promo.

BBC Worldwide also achieved a Finalist Certificate for Out of This World's Promotional Programmes and also for BBC CBeebies Website Promo under the Station/Image Promotion category.

The awards are decided by a Grand Jury of almost 200 directors, editors, producers, journalists and technicians from 30 countries.

Other awards went to CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC Australia and national broadcasters from Germany, Japan, Brazil and China.

(BMcC/GK)