A NORTH-EAST university is to honour a former editor of The Northern Echo.

Harold Evans, a distinguished campaigning editor of the region's favourite daily, is to receive a degree of Doctor Letters at the University of Teesside, Middlesbrough.

Mr Evans carried on The Northern Echo's campaigning tradition in the 1960s, winning a posthumous pardon for Timothy Evans who had been wrongly hanged in 1950 for strangling his young baby daughter.

There were also campaigns against inflammable nightwear following a spate of accidents in which women were horribly burned, a campaign for better roads; and campaigns against industrial pollution on Teesside.

Mr Evans went on to edit the Sunday Times and The Times. His posts also include editorial director and vice chairman of the New York Daily News.

Awarded a gold medal from the Institute of Journalists in 1979 he won the title of Editor of the Year, twice, in 1975 and 1982.

Others to be honoured by the university include Deborah Dyer, better known as Skin, lead singer of rock band Skunk Anansie; actress Elizabeth Carling; local businessman Alistair Arkley; international exhibiting artist Mackenzie Thorpe; and South Carolina-based Emeritus Professor John Gardner, instrumental in forging a Trans-Atlantic partnership with the University of Teesside.