You may have seen yesterday that Fleet Street Blues are looking for your journalism heroes and villains of the year. This got me thinking a bit and I thought I’d share my nominations.

My journalism hero of the year was really easy to pick. As soon as I read about the list Fleet Street Blues are creating, one name dropped into my head: Paul Lewis. For those of you who don’t know, Paul Lewis is the special projects editor at the Guardian and it’s specifically the work he did over the riots in August that has prompted me to nominate him.

Paul spent five days following the riots as they spread out of London. He initially used twitter to find out what was going on but then he got out on the street and experienced it firsthand, he spoke to the rioters and his film maker colleague Mustafa Khalili recorded what was happening. It’s the blend of using traditional journalism methods and new ones involving social media that I love. Have a read about Paul’s experiences of the riots here to fully understand why he is my journalism hero.

I struggled to think of a nomination for the journalism villain of the year. I think I’m just generally too nice a person to want to brand someone a villain. That said, I did eventually settle on a decision. I wanted to shy away from the obvious and make reference to phone hacking. Yes, it’s a terrible thing, journalists shouldn’t have been doing it but I think it’s had enough coverage now, let’s move on.

My nomination for journalism villain of the year goes to Johann Hari. The way he behaved has brought shame upon our whole trade (ok, possibly a slight exaggeration but you get what I mean!). He stole quotes and lied to make it look like he picked them up firsthand. He also used pseudonyms to make rival journalists’ lives a misery. It’s not big and it’s not clever. But it has earned him a nomination for journalism villain of the year.

So, who are your journalism heroes and villains of the year? Let us know via twitter or the comments and also let Fleet Street Blues know so they can be included in the list.