Michael Martin has announced plans for a new award honouring journalists who promote parliamentary democracy.

On the 200th anniversary of the reporting of parliamentary debates, the Commons speaker said reporters acted as the "nation's eyes and ears at Westminster".

The new award will go to "the journalist who has made the greatest contribution to the protection and promotion of parliamentary democracy".

It will be called the Speaker Abbot Award, after the speaker who first decreed that space in the Commons gallery should be set aside for the press.

"I am honoured to have been asked to chair the selection panel and the first award will be made next year," Martin said.

Putting aside sometimes tense relations with the press, the speaker paid a glowing tribute to the 200-strong group of journalists who roam the palace of Westminster.

"You are the guardians of the people's right to know. Let us hope and pray that parliament and the press will be as robust two hundred years from now," he told a dinner for press gallery members.

"All of you are witnesses to the humdrum and high drama that is and always will be politics."

He added that MPs take "great comfort from the knowledge that we provide employment for so many members of the media".