Express & Star's How Many More? knife crime campaign up for national award - and you can vote for us

The annual week-long campaign kicks off today and runs until November 3. It provides us with an opportunity to showcase our campaigning achievements and explain how journalism has delivered real benefit to our communities.

It features the 2024 Making A Difference awards, which showcases local and national news campaigns.

The Express & Star’s How Many More? campaign has been shortlisted for a 2024 award. We launched the campaign to crack down on the sale of killer zombie knives, machetes and swords after reporting on countless murders, involving the almost casual use of frightening weapons in the hands of young teenagers.

Cemented by a 47-minute film called Grief, we teamed up with the family of Ronan Kanda, a 16-year-old from Wolverhampton who was attacked from behind in a case of mistaken identity. His attackers, who were just 17, bought a sword and a machete online with no checks.

We spoke to Rishi Sunak when he was in No 10 as well as current Prime Minister Keir Starmer as we sought reassurances that tackling knife crime was a top priority.

We published a powerful front page – How Many More? – with a patchwork of the young faces lost to knife crime in recent years. The team said: “Every time a young murder happens, we run a roll-call of victims from recent years. It is as long as it is powerful.”

Journalism Matters week is the news media industry’s annual campaign highlighting the benefits journalism creates for our society.

You can vote for the Express & Star’s How Many More? campaign entry in the 2024 Making a Difference Award. Visit newsmediauk.org/making-a-difference-vote/?v=2024. Voting closes on Wednesday at 5pm.