Dr Norman Swan, Tegan Taylor and Will Ockenden have won a Walkley Award in the Radio/Audio: News & Current Affairs category for Coronacast.
Rachael Brown, Josie Taylor, Tim Roxburgh, Marty Peralta and the Trace Team have won the Radio/Audio: Feature category for Trace: The Informer.
Australian journalism’s highest honour, the Gold Walkley Award was won by Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team for their six-month long investigation “Killing Field,” which has been vindicated this week by the release of a damning report on the actions of rogue SAS soldiers in Afghanistan.
This is the 65th Annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism. This year 1408 entries were received.
2020 started in a way no one could have expected: with a global pandemic. Enter Coronacast, a daily, 10-minute podcast providing the latest evidence on the pandemic by responding to questions from the audience. Every episode was hosted by physician and journalist Dr Norman Swan and health reporter Tegan Taylor, with production by Will Ockenden.
The daily Coronacast podcast was an invaluable font of reliable, calm, professional information that has helped people live their lives safely and is a testament to Swan’s exceptional skills as a public health educator. Swan worked tirelessly for months on end to cover the story with unparalleled knowledge, expertise and accuracy and remained steadfast in the face of political criticism and pressure.
For Trace: The Informer, Rachael Brown and Josie Taylor spent 18 months collecting stories from those in Nicola Gobbo’s orbit. Taylor landed interviews with gangland players and lawyers, while Brown’s coverage of the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants enabled her to share case studies of aggrieved former clients, covert police recordings and secret documents.
Brown caught multiple flights to a secret overseas location to interview Gobbo, while ensuring she didn’t leave any bread crumbs. Supporting interviews were gathered via an encrypted messaging app. The interviews are woven through the podcast, painting a detailed portrait of a woman accused of being the greatest threat to Victorian justice.
The Walkley Foundation benchmarks the industry standard for excellence and best practice journalism, working independently with all media organisations to enable Australian journalists to tell the stories of our nation and strengthen democracy. The Walkley Awards are the pre-eminent national journalism awards presented annually in Australia. They recognise and reward the best in the craft and set the industry standard for excellence.
The chair of the Walkley Judging Board, Lenore Taylor, praised the range and depth of this year’s winners.
“During last summer’s fires factual information at times made the difference between life and death,” she said. “Likewise, facts have been the most important tool for limiting the spread of the coronavirus, and our audiences have had a seemingly insatiable thirst for information. It was the role of journalists to go out and bring us reliable information – because facts are what we do. I am always heartened, if slightly overwhelmed, when I see the array of excellent reporting and writing in contention for a Walkley Award – and the journalistic skill and determination evident in every entry.”
2020 Walkley Award Full Winners List
PRINT/TEXT: NEWS REPORT
Award Partner Media Super
- Jacqueline Maley and Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “‘Dirty Dyson’: A harasser on the High Court”
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
Award Partner Sydney Airport
- Nina Funnell, Kerry Warren and Lori Youmshajekian, news.com.au, The Herald Sun, NT News and The Mercury, “#LetUsSpeak: Victoria blocks sexual assault victims from using real names”, “Give Rape Survivors a Voice” and “Gang rape victim becomes first Tasmanian to speak out following gag law reform”
INNOVATION
Award Partner Google News Initiative
- Dylan Welch, Alexander Palmer, Clare Blumer and Suzanne Dredge, ABC, “Anatomy of a suicide bombing”
HEADLINE, CAPTION OR HOOK
Award Partner Qantas
- Anthony De Ceglie, The West Australian, “The Royal Formerly Known As Prince,” “Bridget Over Troubled Rorters” and “You Had One JobKeeper”
PRINT/TEXT: FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner UQ
- Russell Jackson, ABC, “The Persecution of Robert Muir”
PRINT/TEXT: FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
- Liam Mannix, The Age, “The Perfect Virus: Two gene tweaks that turned COVID-19 into a killer”
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Award Partner PwC Indigenous Consulting
- Calla Wahlquist and Lorena Allam, Guardian Australia, “Rio Tinto explodes Juukan Gorge, and BHP’s 24-hour backdown”
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY OR REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Award Partner BHP
- Matthew Kelly, Helen Gregory, Anita Beaumont and Donna Page, Newcastle Herald, “Your Right to Know”
- David Rowe, The Australian Financial Review, “Thoughts and Prayers”
- Jessica Halloran and Julian Linden, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph, “On Thin Ice: Katia’s story”
SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
- Sam Ruttyn, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, “UFC 243”
RADIO/AUDIO: NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Award Partner ABC
- Dr Norman Swan, Tegan Taylor and Will Ockenden, ABC, “Coronacast”
- Rachael Brown, Josie Taylor, Tim Roxburgh, Marty Peralta and Trace Team, ABC, “Trace: The Informer”
PRODUCTION
Award Partner Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas
- Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Black Summer”
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nine News
- Samantha Maiden, The New Daily, “Hawaii Two-O: Scott Morrison’s bushfire holiday”
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
Award Partner Facebook
- ABC News and ABC Regional and Local Team, ABC, “ABC Bushfire Coverage”
NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola”
BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Award Partner ING
- Michael Roddan, The Australian Financial Review, “#AMPToo – sexual harassment at AMP”
FEATURE/PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Award Partner Nikon
- Nick Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Firestorm”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: CAMERAWORK
Award Partner Australian Super
- Adam Bovino, Today and Nine News, Nine, “George Floyd Protests”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: NEWS REPORTING
Award Partner Seven
- Amelia Brace and Tim Myers, Sunrise, Seven News and The Latest, Seven Network, “Beat the Press: Journalism Under Attack”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: CURRENT AFFAIRS SHORT (LESS THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner SBS
- Marc Fennell, Ninah Kopel and Joel Stillone, The Feed, SBS, “Stuffed: Inside Australia’s Biggest Museum Heist”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: CURRENT AFFAIRS LONG (MORE THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner TEN
- Nick McKenzie, Joel Tozer and Sumeyya Ilanbey, 60 Minutes, Nine, “The Faceless Man”
- Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Killing Field”
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
- Tony Wright, The Age, “You learn a bit working on a local paper. It’s all about the people,” “The tragedy of Mary and William, and a federation in chaos again” and “The vaccines that saved the rock ‘n’ roll generation, and many more”
WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD
Award Partner NSW Government
- Sarah Ferguson, Nial Fulton and Tony Jones, ABC and In Films, Revelation
- Lucie Morris-Marr, Fallen, Allen & Unwin
NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO JOURNALISM
Award Partner News Corp Australia
- Ross Gittins, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Killing Field”
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