Journalists from the Herald Sun and The Australian have been key winners at the 2022 News Corp Australia annual News Awards.
News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch was the special guest and he handed out several of the key awards and posed with a group photo with all the winners.
News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson also addressed the winners by video praising the editorial teams for their high standard of journalism. Thomson said: “We are today more digital, more mobile, more global. And yet we cannot be complacent. We cannot be satisfied or smug, but must regard our shared success as a starting point for the future and for what is to come.”
Australia’s biggest-selling newspaper, Victoria’s Herald Sun, won five awards including reporter Stephen Drill and deputy editor Chris Tinkler being acknowledged with Scoop of the Year for their work uncovering the Tim Paine sexting scandal.
Also celebrated at the Victorian daily were:
Senior reporter Anthony Dowsley was recognised for his work on formerly accused cop killer Jason Roberts, which resulted in his conviction over the Silk-Miller police murders being quashed.
Senior photographer Jason Edwards won Photograph of the Year for his shot of former prime minister Scott Morrison accidentally tackling a small boy to the ground during a friendly soccer game on the federal election trail.
David Caird took home the Photographer of the Year category for his impressive portfolio built over the past 12 months.
Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson was recognised for telling his personal story of recovery after suffering two heart attacks. His story, run in conjunction with Fox Footy channel, won him the Human Interest Audio and Visual award.
Hedley Thomas wins Sir Keith Murdoch Award
Another News Corp Australian multiple winner was The Australian.
Leading the way at the national daily was reporter Hedley Thomas for his work on the podcast The Teacher’s Pet.
Thomas was presented with the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for his work that culminated in a guilty verdict in September in the murder trial of Lyn Dawson’s former husband, Chris Dawson.
The Australian reports that News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch said of Thomas: “He’s exposed malfeasance, incompetence and crimes. He’s triggered inquiries, royal commissions and criminal trials. He has done all this through his relentless pursuit of documented facts and innate sense of justice … and winning the trust of victims and their supporters by upholding the essential values of our craft.”
Murdoch added that “despite all of his many successes”, Thomas was “one of the nicest, most humble people, but he’s also one of the most decorated journalists in this country, and for good reason.
“Without Hedley, we might ask how many more people might have died at the hands of Dr (Jayant) Patel or we might ask what would have happened to Dr Mohamed Haneef wrongly accused of links to terrorism … His recent work, however, has taken investigative journalism to a new level by painstakingly pursuing the truth about what happened to Lynette Dawson.”
Other winners at The Australian:
Senior business writer Perry Williams won the Keith McDonald Business Journalism Award for best business journalism.
Young Journalist of the Year went to Sydney reporter Liam Mendes for his coverage of this year’s NSW floods, during which he showcased his talents as a writer, photographer and video journalist.
Senior reporter Kristin Shorten, editorial director Claire Harvey and Sky News Northern Australia correspondent Matt Cunningham won best visual and audio campaign for exposing what really happened in Yuendumu.
Investigations writer Sharri Markson and business editor Kylar Loussikian won Scoop of the Year in the visual and audio category for “Cooked: CEO quits over explicit video” centred around Lark Distilling chief Geoff Bainbridge smoking an ice pipe.
Associate editor Ellen Whinnett won top prize in the National Human-Interest Storytelling category for her book with Lisa Curry, A Memoir. Curry was also a guest at the awards ceremony in Sydney.
Group photo of 2022 News Awards winners. Lachlan Murdoch front centre, Michael Miller front row third from right. Photos: News Corp Australia
News Awards winners at The Daily Telegraph
The Telegraph’s team behind The War, a video series on the murderous struggle for power in Sydney’s underworld, won the Investigation – Visual and Audio category. The four-part documentary, featuring crime reporters Mark Morri and Josh Hanrahan and produced by editor Ben English, deputy editor Anna Caldwell, head of news Nick Hansen and chief of staff Zac McLean.
Telegraph cartoonist Warren Brown won the Bill Leak Cartoonist of the Year award for his work satirising former prime minister Scott Morrison’s secret portfolios, Manly’s pride jersey controversy and high profile media couple Peter FitzSimons and Lisa Wilkinson under the spotlight.
Telegraph sports journalist Julian Linden won in the Sport – State/National category for his exclusive that went global on swimming’s world governing body, FINA.
Sports Network journalist Matt Logue also collected a gong in the same category for his Liz Cambage Australian Opals investigation.
The Courier-Mail’s headline of the year
The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail’s Damien Tomlinson has won Headline of the Year at the 2022 News Awards.
The headline was for a story on Redlands Mayor Karen Williams’ drink driving charge. Williams’ offence came after a zoom meeting on June 23 with three families who have lost children to drink drivers.
“Zoom with a few,” Tomlinson headlined the June 25 article.
See also: News Corp honours its top journalists in the 2021 News Awards