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Sunday journos win Gold Walkley

A story on 'The Butcher of Bega' has won the Gold Walkley Award for journalism -a last hurrah for the axed Sunday show.

Former Sunday journalists Ross Coulthart (pictured) and Nick Farrow won the Gold Walkley last night for their investigation of a doctor’s alleged malpractice and incompetence in the New South Wales town of Bega. Their expose led to charges of sexual assault and mutilation against him.

“Ross Coulthart and Nick Farrow of the Nine Network’s Sunday program acted on a tip and, after weeks of painstaking investigation, found dozens of victims in a series of powerful exposes that forced a reform of NSW medical regulations surrounding the monitoring and reporting of incompetent doctors,” a statement from Walkley organisers said.

Coulthart recently signed with Seven for its new Sunday Night programme, to launch in 2009.

In other awards, ABC TV’s Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent and Australian Story were also winners.

SBS Dateline Video Journalist Ginny Stein has won her third Walkley Award for a body of work about Zimbabwe under the Mugabe regime. A Zimbabwean national, who works under the pseudonym ‘D’, played a major role in the compilation of one of the stories.

Her stories, “Mugabe’s Calling Card”, “Zimbabwe – Inside a Failed State” and “Zimbabwe – Fight for Survival” won the Walkley Award for International Journalism.

GOLD WALKLEY: Ross Coulthart and Nick Farrow, Sunday.

ELEVISION NEWS REPORTING: Aela Callan and Robert Ovadia, Seven News, Seven Network, “Iguanagate”

TELEVISION CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORTING (less than 20 minutes): Ross Coulthart and Nick Farrow, Sunday, Nine Network, “Butcher of Bega”

TELEVISION CURRENT AFFAIRS, FEATURE, DOCUMENTARY OR SPECIAL (more than 20 minutes): Morag Ramsay and Debbie Whitmont, Four Corners, ABC TV, “The Newman Case”

TELEVISION NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS CAMERA: Andrew Taylor, Australian Story, ABC TV, “Show of Force Part 2”

BEST USE OF MEDIA: Ruth Fogarty, Kate Wild and Marian Wilkinson, Four Corners Broadband Edition, ABC Online, “Tipping Point”

COVERAGE OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION: Robert Hill and Stephen McDonell, Foreign Correspondent, ABC TV, “Pre-Olympic China”

SPORT FEATURE COVERAGE: Ben Cheshire, Quentin Davis and Peter Wilkins, Australian Story, ABC TV, “She’s Not There”

INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM: Ginny Stein, Dateline, SBS TV, “Zimbabwe”

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM: Ross Coulthart and Nick Farrow, Sunday, Nine Network, “Butcher of Bega”

Source: ABC, SBS, Herald Sun

4 Responses

  1. Why o why did Nine axe Sunday???

    They could have at least trimmed it down to an hour and just kept the cover story, political interview and film review and they would have built a great brand for the network and a powerful show that could influence so much.

    They should have got Jana back on and moved it back to 9 and it would have rated – for goodness sake it used to do Weekend Sunrise figures at 9 when Jana was on it.

    They just screwed up a great show – was it Eddie mainly who did it with the leaks?

  2. Just heard John Stanley on 2UE bagging the unfunny “jokes” that the presenters told. Stanley said the writers of the “jokes” were The Chaser’s Julian Morrow and 2UE’s Mike Carlton.

  3. Well done to Sunday, SBS and to the ABC for all their awards. 60 Minutes should win too but their stories were not strong enough to win. Maybe next year. Sunday should also return but too many people watch channel 7 so there is no point.

  4. Congratulations to all the winners.
    Can I add that News Limited chairman and CEO John Hartigan won the 2008 Walkley Award for Journalistic Leadership. According to the Herald Sun, Hartigan led the formation in 2007 of the media coalition Australia’s Right to Know, which is campaigning for free speech reform and more open government. He also delivered the 2007 Andrew Olle Lecture in which he argued the importance of quality journalism had never been greater.

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