Walkley winners 2007

SBS, the ABC and Channel Nine all picked up gongs at the 29th Annual Walkley Awards last night.

Dateline, Sunday, Four Corners and Foreign Correspondent were all awarded.

Tony Jones won the Broadcast Interview award for hosting Lateline. World News Australia reporter Brian Thomson won the Television News Reporting category for his series of reports on East Timor.

Craig Hutchison won for his “Drugs in Football” story on The Footy Show / Footy Classified.

The winners included:
TELEVISION NEWS Brian Thomson, SBS, “Timor in Transition”
TELEVISION CURRENT AFFAIRS (less than 20 minutes) Frank McGuire and Adam Shand, Sunday, “Force Within a Force”
TELEVISION CURRENT AFFAIRS (more than 20 minutes) Matthew Brown and Wayne Harley, Foreign Correspondent, “West Bank — Love and Betrayal”
TELEVISION CAMERA Andrew Taylor, Four Corners, ABC TV, “Forward Base Afghanistan” SPORT NEWS Craig Hutchison, The Footy Show and Footy Classified, “Drugs in Football” INTERNATIONAL Ginny Stein, Dateline, “Burma — Inside the Secret City”
INVESTIGATIVE Ginny Stein, Dateline, “Rwanda — Questions of Murder”
BROADCAST INTERVIEWING Tony Jones, Lateline, ABC TV

Press Release:

SBS Television has won three Walkley Awards – two for its flagship international current affairs program Dateline and one for its new-look, one hour World News Australia bulletin. World News Australia reporter Brian Thomson won the Television News Reporting category for his series of reports on East Timor. With the help of cameraman/editor Ryan Sheridan, Brian filed 28 stories over a five month period in which the young nation dealt with a presidential election, the subsequent fallout and ensuing economic and resource issues.

Some reports were filed from remote and dangerous locations including Baucau, where SBS was the only international crew to make it to the Fretlin stronghold where houses had been torched in post-election violence.

This Walkley is particularly significant given that in 2007, World News Australia expanded to become a comprehensive one hour national and international news bulletin which has enabled more original SBS coverage Dateline video journalist Ginny Stein received two awards. Her report Burma – Inside the Secret City won the International Journalism category. It offered a rare glimpse into the plight of dissidents living a country off-limits to the media.

Stein’s report Rwanda – Questions of Murder won the Investigative Journalism category. Across six countries and over six months, it tracked down a former UN staff member accused of multiple murders during the Rwandan conflict. Dateline video journalists Olivia Rousset and Sophie McNeill were Walkley finalists while fellow VJ David O’Shea received a commendation from the judges for his camerawork.

“These awards are testament to the quality news and current affairs being produced by SBS,” Managing Director Shaun Brown said.

“The expansion to the hour-long World News Australia format and increased investment in news and current affairs at SBS has enabled us to produce more quality, original content for our discerning news audience.

“Dateline continues to set the benchmark for excellence in international current affairs coverage. Our intrepid and courageous video-journalists are world renowned for their perseverance and commitment to bringing untold stories to the fore.

“SBS continues its award winning form with this swag of Walkleys. I congratulate not only Brian, Ginny, Olivia, Sophie and David but the entire SBS news and current affairs team under the leadership of Director Paul Cutler for an outstanding year and an outstanding contribution to quality news and current affairs in this country.”

Additional source: The Age