More than 250 guests attended the second News Awards presentation ceremony in the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria, establishing the event as one of the highlights on the News Limited calendar.

Attended by News Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch, his mother Dame Elisabeth and sister HWT chairman Janet Calvert-Jones, the evening recognised the achievements of finalists in 17 categories.

The major award, the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalism, was won by Caroline Overington, of The Australian, for her work in exposing the illegal payment of more than $290 million in kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein which led to the Cole inquiry. The award was presented by Dame Elisabeth, which had special resonance for Caroline. "For me that was so thrilling - to win an award in Sir Keith's name when he was such a giant of Australian journalism. And the fact that it was presented by his widow was just such a touching thing," she said.

Other guests included Melbourne Lord Mayor John So, prominent media buyer Harold Mitchell, News Limited chairman and chief executive John Hartigan, News Corporation directors Sir Rod Eddington and Peter Barnes, group managing editors and editors.

The evening was hosted by television presenter and newsreader Mike Munro, who started on News Limited's Daily Mirror as a cadet journalist. Munro welcomed the guests and paid tribute to Mr Hartigan, with whom he first worked more than 30 years ago.

Mr Hartigan said he regarded the second year of the awards is an important milestone. "We were staggered by the 650 entries, 30 per cent up on last year," he said. "I am inspired by all our finalists. Reviewing their work is tremendously rewarding, professionally and personally."

He paid special tribute to News Limited regional and community newspapers. "Our smaller newspapers do so much, with so few resources, compared to their metropolitan counterparts. So it is great to see the Townsville Bulletin up for Newspaper of the Year and Young Journalist of the Year, and The Gold Coast Bulletin and Geelong Advertiser contesting two categories each. The Progress Leader from Melbourne's eastern suburbs is a finalist for Campaign of the Year, proving that it's not size that counts . . . it is relevance."

Mr Murdoch presented the award for Newspaper of the Year which was won by Melbourne's the Herald Sun. He paid tribute to the work of the editors and the staffs of the newspapers which he said were just getting "better and better".

John Hartigan’s speech

Tonight we pay tribute to what we do. We honour the skill, dedication and creativity of our colleagues. This second year of the Awards is an important milestone. We were staggered by the 650 entries, 30 per cent up on last year.

We have added more categories to better represent the breadth of our work. They include Scoop of the Year, Photograph of the Year and The Chairman's Award. This is for an exemplary contribution to the spirit of journalism and our company.

I am inspired by all our finalists. Reviewing their work is tremendously rewarding, professionally and personally. The standard showcased tonight is what I aspired to as a journalist myself.

It is the quality I tried to demand as an editor and editor-in-chief. I know, and every journalist here knows, that these standards are very, very hard to achieve. When we do, there are few better experiences.

Our smaller newspapers do so much, with so few resources, compared to their metropolitan counterparts. So it is great to see the Townsville Bulletin up for Newspaper of the Year and Young Journalist of the Year, and The Gold Coast Bulletin and Geelong Advertiser contesting two categories each.

The Progress Leader from Melbourne's eastern suburbs is a finalist for Campaign of the Year, proving that it's not size that counts . . . it is relevance. And Gorethy Kenneth from the Post Courier in Papua New Guinea is here as a finalist for Scoop of the Year.

Our newspapers fought their battles. We raged against injustice, and there was plenty of it. We campaigned for what we thought was right and challenged the status quo, even when it made us unpopular.

Sadly, we had to fight again for our most basic right, to publish information in the public interest. At last year's presentation dinner I said - and I quote "Never before have there been so many orchestrated attempts to prevent us from keeping people informed." I thought it couldn't get worse. I was wrong. Our libel laws are now the most antiquated and frustrating in the world. Geoffrey Robertson QC said earlier this year that Australia now lags behind Britain and America in protecting freedom of speech.

Our so-called Freedom of Information Act was already an unworkable joke before the High Court emasculated it this year. The Attorney-General is ignoring our pleas to restore common sense to the sedition laws.

Our courts are issuing more suppression orders than ever, often on the most spurious grounds. Michael Harvey and his colleague Gerard McManus, of the Herald Sun, are still threatened with jail, in a contempt action as a sequel to a story that was 100 per cent right. More than 300 public servants, suspected of daring to tell us what is really happening, were pursued by federal police.

Happily, there were also some exciting changes this year. A profound shift is under way in our newsrooms as we integrate online and print. Many mastheads revamped their websites, energising them with video, audio and blogs.

Broadcasters wait for their bulletins, but with the internet, we wait for no one. The impact is dramatic. When Steve Irwin died in September, The Courier-Mail broke the story on its website. It was lunchtime.

Within hours, our websites had received more than a million hits. All up, more than five million visited The Courier-Mail site alone. More than four thousand readers posted comments. Never before have we reached our readers so quickly, or heard back from so many of them so robustly.

We are becoming more sophisticated at working across print and online. It means having to work differently - and faster. It reminds me of the days when we had afternoon newspapers. There was no time to get back to the office to file. We reported from the scene, running to public telephones to dictate stories as they unfolded. With the Internet, we have that immediacy again.

Our websites are not just electronic versions of our newspapers. We are learning that the two don't compete, they complement each other.

It's a question of adding value on the web. Without the space limitations of print, we can give so much more to readers. Audio, video, extra pictures, maps, archives - the possibilities are endless. Our coverage can be richer, deeper, more diverse than ever.

None of this is easy. Our adventure as an integrated print and online publisher is only just beginning. We have to re-invent how we operate. We have to work out how to make more money from the internet. But make no mistake; it's the most exciting thing to happen to journalism since the telephone.

Which brings me back to why we are here. Technology can enhance, but never replace, the things we value. We value the tenacity to unearth the important stories.

We value the deft touch needed to entertain our readers without patronising them.

We value the determination to protect our audience from those who want to limit the information they get, or hamper the entertainment they want. We value the resilience to stand up for what is right.

Technology is no substitute for our experience, wisdom and creativity. Or, most of all, our ability to connect; to be relevant.

And that is something that every finalist here has done magnificently. Well done, thank you, and have a terrific night.