Why religious and ethical broadcasting?
As advocates for excellence in broadcasting exploring belief and ethics, the Sandford St Martin Trust is committed to making the case for content that furthers people’s understanding of how faith – whether one’s a believer or not – affects the world around us.
Why does the quality of broadcasting and journalism about belief, faith or people’s ethical or moral view points matter anyway? Read our blog and hear what leading media and religious figures and previous award winners like Simon Schama, Jimmy McGovern, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Lyse Doucet think. Or read the Trust’s submissions to Ofcom, the BBC Trust, The Future of TV inquiry and the House of Lords Communications Committee.
The Sandford St Martin 2024 Awards
For 46 years the Sandford St Martin Awards have celebrated broadcast content exploring religion, belief, spirituality and ethics and how people’s faith (or lack of faith) impacts on the world we live in.
Winners of this year’s awards were announced at a gala ceremony at Southwark Cathedral on 17 June.
Congratulations to them all. For full details of this year’s finalists click here.
And if you’ve made great content which explores religion, belief, ethics or spirituality, or if you’re feeling inspired, the 2025 Awards competition will open for entries in November this year. To be eligible entries must have been first broadcast between 1 January and 31 December 2024 and have been publicly available to a UK audience.
You can find out more about the most recent year’s criteria and categories here.
Outreach and events
Find out more on our Events page where you can listen to recordings of previous Sandford St Martin Media salons such as In Conversation with Edward Stourton, reflecting on 50 years of BBC Radio 4’s flagship religious affairs programme Sunday or Back to Burnley a discussion about the impact of news reports from Burnley during the pandemic on of one of the nation’s most vulnerable communities. Or hear Heidi Thomas, speak about making the international hit television series “Call the Midwife”.
There’s more recordings and information about these and resources linked to our other projects such as “Why Black Media Matters”, “What 4? How will privatisation affect religious diversity at Channel 4?” and “Broadcasting in the time of Corona: strategies for Journalists & Producers” here.