Walkleys Awards 2021: mid-year winners

Mid year winners were announced by the Walkley Awards last night.

Mridula Amin from ABC News was named Young Journalist of the Year for her online and radio report. Jason Om (pictured), Alex McDonald and Ake Prihantari from 7:30 also won a Media Diversity award.

Young Australian Journalist of the Year
Mridula Amin, ABC News and Background Briefing, ABC Radio National

Jacoby-Walkley Scholarship supported by: Anita Jacoby, Nine Network and AFTRS
Ella McCrindle, University of Sydney

WIN News Scholarship
Scout Wallen, The University of Queensland

The Young Indigenous Scholarship
Supported by BHP, Ten and Junkee Media
Tahnee Jash

TV and related categories:

Longform feature or special

• Mridula Amin, Background Briefing, ABC Radio National, “The hidden park of last resort”
• Luke Henriques-Gomes, Guardian Australia, “’It was life or death’: the plane-hijacking refugees Australia embraced”
• Patrick Martin, 7pm News South Australia, ABC TV, “Expenses scandal: South Australian MP refuses to answer questions over travel expenses”

Visual storytelling

• Mridula Amin, ABC News and National Geographic, “The hidden park of last resort” “Resettled” and “Armin Wahidi”
• Tom Joyner, ABC 7.30, “Melbourne’s Second Wave”
• Rebecca Metcalf and David Ma, SBS, “Amongst the embers: Six months on from the bushfires”

Public service journalism

• Brooke Fryer, The Feed, SBS, “Queensland crime wave: hardened criminals or misunderstood kids?” and “Troubled Teens: How a Queensland community is tackling youth crime”
• Annabel Hennessy, The West Australian and The Sunday Times, “11-year-old Indigenous girl takes her own life after her alleged rapist is given bail” “Annaliesse Ugle: How housing insecurity and a lack of support contributed to 11-year-old girl’s despair” and “State Government proposes changes to bail laws to look after child sex victims after death of Annaliesse Ugle”
• Amber Schultz, Crikey, “Neglected to death: David Harris’ life reveals awful treatment of the mentally ill,” “Georgi Hadden used to protect us. When she needed it, we didn’t protect her,” and “‘People are bursting into tears’: inside the troubled NDIS watchdog”

Our Watch Award

• Avani Dias, Angela McCormack, Ali Russell and Laura McAuliffe, Four Corners, Triple J Hack and ABC Online, “Tinder: A Predators’ Playground”
• Samantha Maiden, news.com.au, “Young staffer Brittany Higgins says she was raped at Parliament House” “Parliament office ‘steam cleaned’ after alleged attack” and “Minister Michaelia Cash’s voicemail message to Brittany Higgins”
• Lisa Wilkinson, Angus Llewellyn and Georgia Done, The Project and The Sunday Project, Network 10, “Brittany Higgins interview”, “Brittany Higgins editorial” and “A Matter of Consent”

Humanitarian Storytelling Award

• Beau Donelly and Christopher Hopkins, Al Jazeera, “’It takes a village to kill a child’: Uganda’s hidden children”
• Andrew Quilty, The Monthly and The Intercept, “The Worst Form of Defence: New revelations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan” and “The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads”
• Tracey Shelton, Jarrod Fankhauser and Alan Weedon, ABC, “A decade lost”

Media Diversity Australia Award

• Rebecca Armstrong, Angela Leonardi, Quentin McDermott and Helen Grasswill, Australian Story, ABC, “About a boy”
• Marc Fennell, Agnes Teek, Josh McAtamney and Georgina Davies, SBS Dateline, “Born Small”
• Jason Om, Alex McDonald and Ake Prihantari, 7.30, ABC, “Price of Convenience” and “Hungry Panda food delivery company under fire from workers”

A June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism was also awarded to Kelly Burke from Guardian Australia, for “Neighbours actor allegedly removed from set after complaints of racism by Indigenous actor Shareena Clanton”, “Neighbours: more actors come forward with allegations of racist slurs and discrimination on set” and “If Neighbours racism allegations happened in US there would be ‘swift’ repercussions, Remy Hii says.”