BBC big winner at RTS Journalism Awards

The BBC won eight awards at last night's Royal Television Society Journalism Awards.

Its success was a significant improvement on a single title last year. It included scoop of the year for business editor Robert Peston, who was first to report the Northern Rock crisis.

The judges said of his story: "This exclusive was not the result of some authorised leak but come from one journalist following a hunch that something was up and tracking down the truth through contacts and commitment."

Jeremy Paxman won the presenter award for Newsnight while political correspondent Nick Robinson took specialist journalist of the year. Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped and held for several months in Gaza, was recognised for "extraordinary broadcast journalism".

Sky News won three awards including best news channel, for the sixth time in a row, and journalist of the year for Asia correspondent Alex Crawford.

John Ryley, head of Sky News, said its success was "testament to the hard work, speed and - crucially - the boldness of the Sky News team".

Channel 4 and ITN also won three awards each and ITV took two.