Walkley Awards 2019: mid year winners

The mid-year Walkley Awards winners have been announced, dominated by ABC.

SBS was also awarded.

ABC’s Oliver Gordon was named Young Australian Journalist of the Year for his Background Briefing story ‘The Black & White Hotel: Inside Australia’s Segregated Hotel Rooms’, which investigated racial profiling at an Alice Springs hotel.

ABC Director News Gaven Morris said: “The award-winners demonstrate the breadth and depth of the ABC’s reporting across Australia and across the content teams in News, Regional & Local and Entertainment & Specialist.

“We are so proud of our fine upcoming crop of young journalists – the ABC’s tradition of quality public interest journalism is in good hands.

“Oliver Gordon’s entry comprised an excellent piece of investigative journalism, told well,” they said. “He had the tenacity to pursue the story, and looked at the systemic issues behind it, with reporting that was balanced and fair throughout. Bringing the community members along with him, he won their trust, and had enormous impact.”

Gordon said: “This is a win for regional journalism, for whistle blowers, but most of all for collaboration. The story spanned ABC Regional, ABC News, Background Briefing, RN, ABC Adelaide and ABC Kimberley – and everyone in between.”

Gordon will fly to the US to undertake two weeks’ worth of work experience with BuzzFeed News, The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, Twitter and Quartz. All category winners receive mentoring from senior journalists and their winning stories are featured on Apple News.

Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards
Oliver Gordon, Background Briefing, Radio National, ABC Radio, “The Black & White Hotel: Inside Australia’s Segregated Hotel Rooms”

All media: Shortform Journalism
Isabella Higgins, ABC News 7pm bulletin, ABC TV and ABC Online, “Life in the grips of a suicide crisis” “Strength in the suicide community” and “The fight of our lives”

All media: Longform Feature or Special
Oliver Gordon, Background Briefing, Radio National, ABC Radio, “The Black & White Hotel: Inside Australia’s Segregated Hotel Rooms”

All media: Coverage of Community & Regional Affairs
Henry Zwartz, ABC News Regional, “‘This is Tasmania’s Ballarat’: Abuse survivors speak out”

All media: Visual Storytelling
Annika Blau and Zoe Osborne, ABC News, “Women in Asia: Growing up as a living goddess; My Huong thought she’d finally found her mother after the war; Inside Nepal’s forbidden kingdom.”

All media: Public Service Journalism
Laura Murphy-Oates, SBS, “Reporting on Indigenous affairs”

Freelance Journalist of the Year
Yaara Bou Melhem, Witness, Al Jazeera English and Foreign Correspondent, ABC, “Maria Ressa: War on Truth” and “The Oasis”

Women’s Leadership in Media
Melissa Davey, Guardian Australia, “The investigation into Dr Gayed”

Our Watch Award for Excellence in Reporting on Violence Against Women and Children
Sarah Dingle and the Background Briefing Team, Radio National, ABC, “Australia On Trial: Carers who kill, Slavery in the suburbs, Murder on Trial“

Media Diversity Australia Award
Aaron Smith, Kirk Docker, Loni Cooper, Pauline Ernesto and Josh Schmidt, ABC and ABC iview, “You Can’t Ask That – Deaf, African Australians and Intersex”

Arts Journalism Prizes
Through the support of the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, winners of both of these two awards will each receive $5000 in prize money.

All media: Arts Journalism Prize
Jane Howard, ABC, “How Australian theatre rebalanced its gender disparity”

All media: Walkley-Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism
Supported by: Geraldine Pascall Foundation
Jeff Sparrow, Sydney Review of Books, “A Place of Punishment: No Friend But the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani”

Jacoby-Walkley Scholarship with Nine
Caroline Tung, Monash University

Media Super Scholarship with Seven
Amy Clements, The University of Melbourne