Walkley Awards withdraws Nine award

The Walkley Foundation has announced its decision to withdraw an award given to Peter Fegan and Rebeka Powell of Nine News in the 2021 Walkley Awards.

The award, for a series of three television news reports entitled ‘The Investigation of Andrew Laming’ won the Television / Video News Reporting category for stories broadcast in March 2021 when Dr Andrew Laming was a Federal MP.

But Dr Laming initiated defamation proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Nine around an allegation that a lewd photograph was taken of a young woman in her workplace without her knowledge or consent.

Nine settled on confidential terms and issued an apology in September 2022.

“9News has now seen material which indicates that the photograph Dr Laming took was not lewd in nature. 9News unreservedly withdraws those allegations about Dr Laming and apologises to him and his family for the hurt and harm caused by the report,” Nine said in a statement.

The Walkley Foundation launched an investigation and subsequently withdrew the award. The 2021 award will not be presented to either of the other finalists as the Walkley Judging Board did not select a runner-up.

“The self-nominated award gave credibility to false and damaging allegations that should never have been published,” a spokesperson for Laming told Guardian Australia.

“The Walkley Foundation judging panel were aware of Dr Laming’s legal complaints yet proceeded to grant the award without making any inquiries of him about the substance of those complaints.

“The Walkley Foundation and other bodies should review their processes when legal claims have been made in relation to nominated publications.”

Nine’s director of news and current affairs, Darren Wick, said: “This decision by the Walkley Foundation is extremely disappointing, and sets a very concerning precedent. Nine stands by the journalists involved and the importance of the work they produced, and as an organisation will not be deterred from pursuing challenging journalism that serves and informs the community.”

The Walkley Foundation is also conducting a separate process to review its complaints process, following complaints by Dr. Laming.