Media release: Calling all aspiring writers to enter this year’s Ian Bell Award THE National Union of Journalists invites entries by young writers for an award to commemorate Ian Bell, the radical journalist and author who died in December 2015. The competition is aimed at young writers who have yet to break into professional journalism. Entries should be in the critical spirit of Ian Bell and written in a style – lively, taut, provocative but thoughtful – suitable for online and newspaper publication. The subject can be drawn from politics, culture, modern society, history, international affairs, Scotland, or related topics, and can be investigative reporting or informed commentary.