deankirby.uk

Journalist, Historian, author

Journalism

Dean Kirby is a multi-award-winning freelance journalist and have been reporting the news for 25 years including a decade on Fleet Street.

He has won and been shortlisted for 20 awards. They include winning the Medical Journalists’ Association News Story of the Year Award in 2021 for an investigation into NHS PPE supply chain chaos in the Covid pandemic. In 2022, he was highly commended for the prestigious Hugh Cudlipp Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism and shortlisted for Scoop of the Year at the British Journalism Awards for his work on the war in Ukraine, which used satellites to reveal the existence of Russian processing camps for Ukrainians, as well as being a finalist for Multi-Media Journalist of the Year at the London Press Club Awards.

His recent projects include an exposé of the UK’s prepayment energy meter scandal, which changed Government policy, sparked an Ofgem investigation and led to a court ban on forced meter installations in the UK’s poorest homes. For this story, he was longlisted for the Paul Foot Award and shortlisted for the the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, the Hugh Cudlipp, for campaign of the year at the Society of Editors’ Media Freedom Awards and for scoop of the year at the Pagefield Press Awards.

He was the investigations correspondent for the i newspaper and has previously been the northern correspondent for the Independent and the Independent on Sunday. He was a leading member of the award-winning Johnston Press Investigations Team, a collaborative network of journalists writing across more than 100 newspapers and websites. Prior to that he worked for the Manchester Evening News in specialist roles including health, transport and court reporting. He also previously served as the paper’s aviation reporter, running a district office at Manchester Airport.

Major stories he has covered included on-the-ground reporting of the Covid pandemic, the impact of Brexit, the Manchester Arena attack and inquiry, and the Hillsborough trials. He has also undertaken foreign assignments including reporting from the Calais Jungle refugee camp. He is a specialist in managing investigations, freedom of information, open-source skills including the use of satellites and ship and aircraft tracking, feature writing and producing academic papers and reports. He has given evidence to parliamentary committees and inquiries.

He holds a PhD in urban history, is a published author, has a higher education teaching qualification, is an associate fellow of Advance HE, and is a volunteer mentor to socially disadvantaged journalism students. He has spoken about his work and academic research at conferences including the Centre for Investigative Journalism Conference in London.

Dean is available for freelance commissions for writing, research, consultancy, public speaking, training and community journalism projects.

Awards and nominations

  • The Prepayment Meter Scandal: The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, 2023. Finalist.
  • The Prepayment Meter Scandal: The Hugh Cudlipp Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism, 2023. Finalist.
  • The Prepayment Meter Scandal: The Paul Foot Award for Investigative Journalism, 2023. Longlisted.
  • The Prepayment Meter Scandal: The Society of Editors’ Media Freedom Awards, 2023. Campaign of the Year. Finalist.
  • The Prepayment Meter Scandal: The Pagefield Press Awards, 2023. Scoop of the Year. Finalist.
  • Russia Filtration Camps Exposed: British Journalism Awards 2022. Scoop of the Year. Finalist.
  • Russia Filtration Camps Exposed: The Hugh Cudlipp Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism, 2022. Highly Commended.
  • Russia Filtration Camps Exposed: The London Press Club Awards, 2022. Multi-Media Journalist of the Year. Finalist.
  • The English Channel migrants’ dinghy sinking investigation: Drum Online Media Awards, 2022. Best Investigative Journalism. Finalist.
  • PPE Chaos investigation. The Medical Journalists’ Association Awards, 2021. News Story of the Year. Winner.
  • PPE Chaos investigation. The Drum Media Awards, 2021. Editorial Campaign of the Year. Finalist.
  • JPI Media Investigations Unit – The Lost Billions investigation. The JPI Media Awards, 2020. Investigation of the Year. Winner.
  • JPI Media Investigations Unit – The Lost Billions investigation. The Drum Media Awards, 2020. Editorial Campaign of the Year. Finalist.
  • JPI Media Investigations Unit – The Lost Billions. The Campaign Publishing Awards, 2020. Editorial Campaign of the Year. Highly Commended.
  • JPI Media Investigations Unit – Veterans in Crisis. The Mind Media Awards, 2019. Publication of the Year. Winner.
  • JPI Media Features Writer of the Year, 2019. Winner.
  • JPI Media Investigations Unit – School Knife Crime investigation.
  • The Press Gazette Specialist Media Awards, 2018. Finalist.
  • Northern Soul Northern Writer of the Year, 2018. Finalist.
  • Johnston Press Journalist of the Year, 2018. Highly Commended.
  • Johnston Press Daily Journalist of the Year, 2017. Winner.