Finalists in the 63rd annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism were announced last night at simultaneous events in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Journalists around Australia submitted over 1,300 entries, which were judged by more than 100 senior industry representatives.
2018 Walkley Award finalists
PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT
Award Partner Media Super
• Sharri Markson, Christopher Dore and Kylar Loussikian, The Daily Telegraph, “Bundle of Joyce”
• Kate McClymont, Lorna Knowles, Tracey Spicer and Alison Branley, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Don Burke Investigation”
• Nick McKenzie, Fairfax Media, “The fall of Shanghai Sam”
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
Award Partner Naked Communications
• Laura Banks, The Daily Telegraph and Seven News Sydney, “Little Boy Dead”
• Belinda Hawkins and Sarah Farnsworth, Australian Story, ABC TV, “The Justice Principle”
• Louise Milligan, Sashka Koloff, Mary Fallon and Lucy Carter, Four Corners, ABC TV, “I Am That Girl”
INNOVATION
Award Partner News Corp Australia
• Nathan Bazley, Luke Gibbs, Matt Holbrook and Daniel Mee, ABC, “Kokoda VR”
• Kylie Boltin, Matty Huynh, Michael Green and Ella Rubeli, Instagram & SBS Online Documentaries, “She Called Me Red”
• Guardian Australia Team, Guardian Australia, “Deaths Inside: Indigenous deaths in custody”
HEADLINE, CAPTION OR HOOK
Award Partner Qantas
• Anthony De Ceglie and Brad Clifton, The Daily Telegraph, “BUNDLE OF JOYCE” “DELAY OLE! DELAY OLE!” AND “PEKING SCHMUCK”
• Baz McAlister, The Courier Mail and The Sunday Mail, “DEBBIE DOES DALLIANCES” “THROW IN THE TOWELS…” and “BOLD McDONALD HAS NO CHARM”
• Lane Sainty, BuzzFeed and Twitter, “The same-sex marriage saga, explained via Twitter flowchart”
FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner UQ
• James Bradley, The Monthly, “Ocean’s End”
• James Button, The Monthly, “Angels or Arrogant Gods: Dutton, Immigration and the Triumph of Border Protection”
• Melissa Davey and Carly Earl, Guardian Australia, “I still feel mutilated’: victims of disgraced gynaecologist Emil Gayed speak out”
FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner Fairfax
• Rosemary Neill, The Weekend Australian, “Family affair: How Dorothy Hewett facilitated her daughters’ abuse”
• Leisa Scott, Qweekend, The Courier-Mail, “Holly’s Choice”
• Paige Taylor, The Weekend Australian, “My arrival at a wretched realisation”
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Award Partner PwC
• Allan Clarke and Yale Macgillivray, ABC, “Unravel: Blood on the Tracks”
• Laura Murphy-Oates, The Feed, SBS Viceland, “Kids of Kalgoorlie” “Reconciling Murder: The Myall Creek massacre” and “The Frontier wars: Australia’s Forgotten Conflicts”
• Guardian Team, Guardian Australia, “Deaths Inside: Indigenous deaths in custody”
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY OR REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Award Partner BHP
• Belinda-Jane Davis, The Maitland Mercury, “The Big Dry”
• Shannon Tonkin, Illawarra Mercury, “State of Neglect”
• Giselle Wakatama, ABC, “Home of Horrors”
CARTOON AND ARTWORK
• Kylie Boltin, Tia Kass, Michael Green and Debra Shulkes, SBS Online network, “Faces of the Rohingya”
• Jamie Brown, The Sunday Age, “Generation Game”
• Jon Kudelka, The Australian, “From The Heart”
SPORTS JOURNALISM
• Chris Barrett, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Sandpaper, lies and videotape”
• Neil Breen, Nine News, Nine Network, “One Night in New York”
• Leo Schlink, Herald Sun, “The Big Fix”
SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
• Scott Barbour, Getty Images, “Sport 2017—2018”
• Brett Costello, The Daily Telegraph, “No Limits”
• Craig Golding, AAP, “Body of Work ”
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Award Partner ABC
• Jane Bardon, AM, ABC Radio National Breakfast, ABC News Online, “NT youth detention and child protection systems in crisis despite Royal Commission”
• Ange McCormack, Karla Arnall and Philippa McDonald, Triple J Hack, ABC, “‘Disturbing’ privacy breach revealed: Over 1,000 NSW Health medical records abandoned in derelict building”
• Sally Sara, ABC Radio, “Going Back”
RADIO/AUDIO FEATURE
Award Partner Griffith University
• Hagar Cohen and Team Background Briefing, Background Briefing, ABC Radio National, “Fentanyl: A national emergency”
• Miles Martignoni, David Marr and Melissa Davey, Guardian Australia, “The Reckoning”
• Kylie Stevenson, Caroline Graham and Eric George, The Australian, “Lost in Larrimah”
PRODUCTION
Award Partner Google News Initiative
• ABC News Interactive Digital Storytelling, ABC News Online, “Into The Cave”
• Four Corners Production Team, Four Corners, ABC TV, “I Am That Girl”
• Peak Hour Project Team, The Age, “How to beat Melbourne’s worsening peak-hour traffic”
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nine
• Sharri Markson, Christopher Dore and Kylar Loussikian, The Daily Telegraph, “Bundle of Joyce”
• Lisa Martin, Guardian Australia and AAP, “The Au Pair Affair”
• Nick McKenzie, Fairfax Media, “Shanghai Sam, the tip-off and the tape”
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
Award Partner Lion
• Drew Ambrose, Karishma Vyas and Liz Gooch, 101 East, Al Jazeera, “Rohingya Refugee Crisis”
• Guardian & 2SER Team, Guardian Australia, “The death of David Dungay”
• Paige Taylor, Natasha Robinson, Jacquelin Magnay and Chris Merritt, ABC, The Australian and The Weekend Australian, “Captain Dragan”
NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
• Lukas Coch, AAP, “Linda Burney Airborne”
• Jenny Evans, Getty Images and The Daily Telegraph, “Life Saver”
• Andrew Quilty, The New York Times, “‘It’s a Massacre’: Blast in Kabul Deepens Toll of a Long War”
FEATURE/PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Award Partner Nikon
• Jenny Evans, Getty Images, “Louth Races”
• David Gray, Reuters Wider Image, “Drought From Above”
• Chris Hopkins, SBS Online Documentaries, “My Name is Yunus”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: CAMERAWORK
Award Partner Australian Super
• Matthew Davis, Foreign Correspondent, ABC, “On Top Of The World”
• Aaron Hollett, Four Corners, ABC, “City of Ghosts”
• Ginny Stein, Lateline, ABC “The Duterte Solution”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: NEWS REPORTING
Award Partner Seven
• Alexandra Blucher and Mark Willacy, ABC 7pm News, ABC TV, “Corruption concerns at one of Australia’s biggest councils”
• Chris O’Keefe, Nine News, Nine Network, “Emma Husar Quits”
• Chris Reason, Seven 6pm News, Seven Network & Social Media & News Specials, “Thai Caves Rescue”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS SHORT (LESS THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner SBS
• Dimity Clancey and Natalie Clancy, A Current Affair, Nine Network, “Disgraced Doctor”
• Hagar Cohen and Nikki Tugwell, 7.30, ABC TV, “Fentanyl abuse series”
• Lorna Knowles, Kate McClymont, Jo Puccini, Alison Branley and ABC and Fairfax Team, 7.30, ABC TV, “Women claim Don Burke sexually harassed them” and “More people come forward with accounts of dealing with Don Burke”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS LONG (MORE THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner Ten
• Stephen Long and Wayne Harley, Four Corners, ABC TV, “Digging into Adani”
• Louise Milligan, Sashka Koloff, Mary Fallon and Lucy Carter, Four Corners, ABC TV, “I Am That Girl”
• Mark Willacy and Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC TV, “Out of the Dark”
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
Award Partner Bayer
• Lisa Martin, Guardian Australia and AAP, “The Au Pair Affair”
• Royce Millar, Ben Schneiders and Chris Vedelago, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax Media, “Catholic Inc: What the Church is really worth”
• Hedley Thomas and Slade Gibson, The Australian, “The Teacher’s Pet”
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
• Julia Baird, ABC, The Sydney Morning Herald and The New York Times, “When women speak: The importance of female voices in the era of #MeToo”
• Mark Riley, The West Australian, “Atrocities committed in God’s name mean church will never sway me,” “Live exports to Middle East based on a lie,” “‘Disappointing Malcolm Turnbull comes under fire from his own faction”
• Ranjana Srivastava, Guardian Australia, “Healthcare from the frontline”
WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD SHORTLIST
• Myanmar’s Killing Fields, Evan Williams, Patrick Wells, Eve Lucas and Georgina Davies, Dateline, SBS
• The Song Keepers, Rachel Clements, Naina Sen and Trisha Morton-Thomas, Brindle Films, Indigo Productions and NITV
• Trump/Russia, Four Corners Trump/Russia team, Four Corners, ABC TV
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD LONGLIST
• Rachael Brown, Trace: Who Killed Maria James?, Scribe Publications
• Tjanara Goreng Goreng with Julie Szego, A Long Way From No Go, Wild Dingo Press
• Peter Greste, The First Casualty, Viking
• Sarah Krasnostein, The Trauma Cleaner, Text Publishing
• John Martinkus, Lost Copy: The Endless Wars, Australian Scholarly Publishing
• Chris Masters, No Front Line: Australia’s Special Forces At War in Afghanistan, Allen & Unwin
• Rick Morton, One Hundred Years of Dirt, Melbourne University Publishing
• Helen Pitt, The House, Allen & Unwin
• Kate Wild, Waiting For Elijah, Scribe Publications
NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nikon
• Matthew Abbott, The New York Times, Oculi, ABC and The Australian
• Dean Lewins, NBCnews.com, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, The Australian and Time
• Andrew Quilty, The New York Times, Human Rights Watch, National Geographic Magazine, Politic and The Guardian