The Walkley Foundation announced the finalists for the 65th annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
There were 1408 entries for the 2020 awards.
Winners will be announced in a live broadcast on SKY NEWS EXTRA (Foxtel Channel 603) and streamed on the Walkley website from 7pm AEDT on Friday, November 20.
PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT
Award Partner Media Super
- Luke Henriques-Gomes, Guardian Australia, “Robodebt failure exposed by leaked documents”
- Jacqueline Maley and Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “‘Dirty Dyson’: a harasser on the High Court”
- Sharri Markson and Kylar Loussikian, The Australian and The Weekend Australian, “The Thousand Talents Plan”
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”
- Chris Vedelago, Sumeyya Ilanbey and Cameron Houston, The Age, “The man who made a toxic waste disaster,” “What happened to us in West Footscray? Firefighters call for answers after toxic fire” and “’Don’t fight’: CFA told to stay home if chemical stash explodes”
- Elise Worthington, Lesley Robinson and John Stewart, Four Corners, ABC, “Please Don’t Judge”
INNOVATION
Award Partner Google News Initiative
- Juliette O’Brien, covid19data.com.au, “Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Australia”
- Visual Stories Team, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “Invisible Crime – Are we failing victims of sexual violence”
- 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”
- Baz McAlister, The Courier-Mail, “Apoocalypse Now,” “The Windsor of Our Discontent” and “You Shook ‘Em All Night, Elon”
- Duska Sulicich, The Age, “There’s a square in there, and a glare as well,” “Bat hit crazy” and “The laud’s prayer”
FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner UQ
- Annabel Crabb, Quarterly Essay, “Men at Work: Australia’s Parenthood Trap”
- Trent Dalton, The Weekend Australian Magazine, “Back From The Black”
- Russell Jackson, ABC, “The Persecution of Robert Muir”
FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
- Harriet Alexander, Nick Moir, Mark Stehle and Richard Lama, The Sydney Morning Herald, “The Monster: A short history of Australia’s biggest forest fire”
- Liam Mannix, The Age, “The Perfect Virus: two gene tweaks that turned COVID-19 into a killer”
- Sarah Walker, Australian Book Review, “Contested Breath: The ethics of assembly in an age of absurdity”
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Award Partner PwC Indigenous Consulting
- Stan Grant and the Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “I Can’t Breathe”
- Annabel Hennessy, The West Australian, “Kill or Be Killed? The incarceration of Jody Gore”
- 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
- Carla Hildebrandt, Mandurah Mail, “Annette Deverell investigation”
- Matthew Kelly, Helen Gregory, Anita Beaumont and Donna Page, Newcastle Herald, “Your Right to Know”
- Charlotte King and Andy Burns, Background Briefing, ABC, “Regional stillbirths: No one told these country mums why their babies died”
CARTOON
- Glen Le Lievre, Patreon, “Peace at last”
- Jim Pavlidis, The Age, “Back in Black, Highway to Hell”
- David Rowe, The Australian Financial Review, “Thoughts and Prayers”
SPORTS JOURNALISM
- Peter Badel, Travis Meyn, Robert Craddock and Kate Kyriacou, The Courier-Mail, “Fall of the Brisbane Broncos”
- Jessica Halloran and Julian Linden, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph, “On Thin Ice: Katia’s story”
- Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Amy Donaldson, Fred Shaw and Justin Stevens, 7.30, ABC, “The Final Race”
SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “Football’s Longest Drive: 2000kms across Central Australia”
- Robert Cianflone, Getty Images, “Sporting Arenas”
- Sam Ruttyn, The Daily Telegraph, “UFC 243”
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Award Partner ABC
- Avani Dias, Hack, triple j, ABC, “The colleague, the girl, the police: Student framed and imprisoned over terror offences tells whole story for the first time”
- Dr Norman Swan, Tegan Taylor and Will Ockenden, ABC, “Coronacast”
- Mark Willacy, Alexandra Blucher and Rory Callinan, AM, ABC, “The Village Idiot Killing”
RADIO/AUDIO FEATURE
- Rachael Brown and ABC Trace Team, ABC, “Trace: The Informer”
- Nicola Harvey, Nakkiah Lui and Miranda Tapsell, Audible, “Debutante”
- Hedley Thomas, Slade Gibson and Peter Murphy, The Australian, “The Night Driver”
PRODUCTION
Award Partner Judith Neilson Institute
- Casey Briggs, Andrew George, Ryan Kerlin and Peter Matejcek, ABC, “The Curve: COVID-19 data journalism”
- Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Black Summer”
- Visual Stories Team, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “Invisible Crime – Are we failing victims of sexual violence”
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nine News
- Samantha Maiden, The New Daily, “Hawaii Two-O: Scott Morrison’s bushfire holiday”
- Nick McKenzie, Joel Tozer and Sumeyya Ilanbey, 60 Minutes, Nine, “The Faceless Man”
- Paul Sakkal and Chloe Booker, The Age, “Hotel quarantine”
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
Award Partner Facebook
- ABC News and ABC Regional and Local Team, ABC, “ABC Bushfire Coverage”
- Richard Baker and The Age hotel quarantine news team, The Age, “Hotel quarantine”
- Stan Gorton, The Islander, “Kangaroo Island 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”
- Brad Fleet, The Advertiser, “One billion deaths”
- Jake Nowakowski, Herald Sun, “Extinction Rebellion”
BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Award Partner ING
- Adele Ferguson, Lesley Robinson and Lauren Day, Four Corners, ABC TV and The Sydney Morning Herald and
- The Age, Nine Network, “Immoral and unethical”
- Jared Lynch and Nick Evans, The Australian, “Ending business payment rorts”
- Michael Roddan, The Australian Financial Review, “#AMPToo – sexual harassment at AMP”
FEATURE/PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “Black Summer”
- David Caird, Sunday Herald Sun, “Behind the COVID Door”
- Nick Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Firestorm”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CAMERAWORK
Award Partner Australian Super
- Adam Bovino, Today and Nine News, Nine, “George Floyd Protests”
- Scott Morelli, 60 Minutes, Nine, “Permafrost”
- Aaron Smith, ABC TV and ABC iView, “Revelation”
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”
- Alex Hart, Seven News Sydney, Seven Network “New South Wales Fires”
- Chris O’Keefe, Nine News, Nine Network, “The Ruby Princess Emails”
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”
- Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett, 7.30, ABC, “Alinta Exposed: Power, lies and privacy breaches”
- Dylan Welch, Suzanne Dredge and David Maguire, 7.30, ABC, “Battlescars”
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”
- Louise Milligan, Mary Fallon and Lauren Day, Four Corners, ABC, “Boys Club”
- Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Killing Field”
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
- Jacqueline Maley and Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “‘Dirty Dyson’: a harasser on the High Court”
- Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, 60 Minutes, Nine, “Secrets of War”
- Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Killing Field”
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
- Nigel McNay, The Border Mail, “Ineptitude at heart of shutdown,” “Go into the dark to see the light” and “Someone knows what happened”
- Ranjana Srivastava, Guardian Australia, “I am a frontline doctor: here’s how you can help me,” “No Zoom meeting ever replaces the solace of grieving with relatives,” and “How did we miss our colleague’s grief?”
- 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 SHORTLIST
- Against Our Oath, Heather Kirkpatrick, Waratah Films
- Revelation, Sarah Ferguson, Nial Fulton and Tony Jones, ABC and In Films
- Storm in a Teacup, Nia Pericles and Celia Tait, ABC and Artemis Media
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD LONGLIST
- Stephanie Convery, After the Count, Viking, Penguin Random House Australia
- Antony Dapiran, City On Fire, Scribe
- Tom Doig, Hazelwood, Viking, Penguin Random House Australia
- Garry Linnell, Buckley’s Chance, Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House Australia
- Paddy Manning, body count, Simon & Schuster
- Sophie McNeill, We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know, ABC Books
- Lucie Morris-Marr, Fallen, Allen & Unwin
- Margaret Simons, Penny Wong, Black Inc.
- Suzanne Smith, The Altar Boys, ABC Books
NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi
- Kate Geraghty, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Nick Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald
2020 NIKON-WALKLEY PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE WINNERS
These are not Walkley Awards, but prizes administered by the Walkley Foundation on behalf of Nikon. These photos will also appear in the Nikon-Walkley Press Photography exhibition.
NIKON-WALKLEY PHOTO OF THE YEAR WINNER
Christopher Hopkins, The Age, “I Want to Hold her Hand”
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