United Nations Association of Australia: media awards 2017

The United Nations Association of Australia has handed out its annual media awards for the promotion of human rights and issues.

Winners included You Can’t Ask That, Foreign Correspondent, ABC News, NITV & Sunday Night, whose report ‘The Hunting Grounds’, which exposed the prevalence and handling of sexual assaults at Australian universities won the award for Promotion of Gender Equality: Empowerment of Women and Girls for exposing the prevalence and handling of sexual assaults at Australian universities.

 

Sunday Night Executive Producer, Hamish Thomson said: “We are extremely proud our team has been recognised with this award. It was a powerful investigation exposing what can only be described as an epidemic of rape and sexual abuse on university campuses around the nation. Through dozens of FOI applications, Alison and Nina worked tenaciously to lay the factual foundations for the report, creating for the first time a true national picture of just how widespread the problem is. Working with PJ (Madam) and Penny (McWhirter), the team was then able to bring a human face to these alarming statistics, interviewing brave young woman who spoke out about their shocking experiences.”    

TV winners in bold:

TV  News/Current Affairs
Applying Pressure for a Switch to NT Detention Alternatives, Jane Bardon, ABC National Darwin
Urban Soldier: Inside Chicago’s War, Phil Goyen, Liz Hayes, Scott Morelli, Ben Crane, Judge Norgate, 60 Minutes, Nine Network
Six Days in Somaliland, Sally Sara and Dingani Masuku, ABC News
Somaliland Famine, Kirsty Johansen and Edoardo Falcione, SBS World News

TV Documentary
Blue, Northern Pictures
Deep Water: The Real Story, Blackfella Films Pty Ltd
Cold Justice, Allan Clarke, NITV and Buzzfeed
Venezuela Undercover, Eric Campbell, Matthew Davis, Foreign Correspondent, ABC TV

Promotion of Gender Equality: Empowerment of Women and Girls
Australia’s Dowry Deaths, Naomi Selvaratnam and Mary Ann Jolley, Al Jazeera English
A Brutal History: The Killing of Wubanchi Asfaw, Kathy Marks, SBS Online
Kakenya Ntaiya, Marc Fennell, SBS TV
The Hunting Grounds, PJ Madam, Alison Sandy, Penny McWhirter, Nina Funnell, Sunday Night, Seven Network
Fact Check: Why the Gender Pay Gap Persists, RMIT ABC Fact Check

Promotion of Children’s Rights and Issues
Sins of the Father, Belinda Hawkins, Steven Baras-Miller, Sarah Farnsworth, Emily Porrello, Mark Farnell, Australian Story, ABC TV
Fallen Angels, Margaret Simons, Heather Jarvis, Dave Tacon, Earshot, ABC Radio National
Generation Left Behind, Matthew Carney, Zhang Qian, Wayne McAllister, ABC Foreign Correspondent

Promotion of Social Cohesion
Shooting for the Stars, Sharon Davis, Australian Story, ABC TV
You Can’t Ask That: Suicide Attempt Survivors; Refugees and Children of Same-Sex Parents, ABC TV
 It’s Being Recorded: the Death of Ashley Bryant, William Verity, Earshot,  ABC Radio National

Promotion of Disability Rights and Issues
You Can’t Ask That: Down Syndrome; Facial Difference and Blind, ABC TV
No Holding Back, Kristopher Flanders, NITV
Allegations of Abuse Against People with Disabilities in Tasmania, Natalie Whiting, 7:30 Report, ABC TV
Autism in Agriculture, The Project, 7PM Company Pty Ltd