For the first time Wales Arts Review announces our Person of the Year, the individual figure we believe has offered the greatest contribution to the arts and culture of Wales, who has moved to shape and drive the most important issues of our time.

For this inaugural award, the Wales Arts Review Person of the Year is novelist and journalist Carole Cadwalladr, whose work in 2018 investigating the criminality of the leave campaigns during the EU Referendum has been an example of world class, fearless, journalism. Frequently bullied and vilified by Brexiteers, fellow journalists and the BBC, Cadwalladr has never once wavered in the face of wild misogyny and attempts to silence her. In 2018 alone she has won the Orwell Prize for political journalism for her work “on the impact of big data on the EU Referendum and the 2016 US presidential election”, the Reporters without Borders “L’esprit de RSF” award for her work on subversion of democratic processes), and Political Studies Association Journalist of the Year (joint award with Amelia Gentleman) for her persistence and resilience in pursuing “investigative journalism on subjects such as personal data”.

 

Wales Arts Review Person of the Year 2018

Carole Cadwalladr

 

“For a fearless dedication to journalism and the fight against attacks on democracy”