NT Media Awards 2023: winners

SKY News and ABC News were winners at this year’s NT Media Awards held at Darwin City’s Smith St Social on Saturday.

SKY News Northern Territory correspondent Matt Cunningham (picturd top right) was named 2023 NT Journalist of the Year. His stories shined a light on the domestic and family violence against Aboriginal women in Alice Springs, and a disastrous government-sponsored affordable housing project in Darwin. His reporting on a wave of crime in Alice Springs, also included in the submission, prompted a snap visit by the Prime Minister and his TV reporting and coverage on this issue received 105,000 video views on YouTube.

The judges said, “Only the best reporting can make a nation stop and listen – Matt Cunningham’s brilliant and sensitive coverage of Alice Springs did exactly that.”

TV and related winners in bold:

Gold Awards

NT Journalist of the Year
Matt Cunningham, SKY News Australia – Darwin Bureau

Young Journalist of the Year
Sierra Haigh, NT News
Myles Houlbrook-Walk, ABC
Riley Walter, NT News

Television

Best News Coverage
Jane Bardon, ABC News Darwin. “Puncturing government claims about the Beetaloo and its gas export hub”
Matt Cunningham, Sky News Australia – Darwin Bureau, “Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne Abuse of Office”
Matt Cunningham, Sky News Australia Darwin Bureau, “The Violence that Gripped the NT”

Best Current Affairs or Feature
Matt Cunningham, Sky News Australia Darwin Bureau, “Alena Kukla’s Story”
Matt Garrick, ABC News Darwin, “Behind a social breakdown”
Dane Hirst, Eleni Roussos and Andie Smith, ABC News, “’Dire’ homelessness situation in the Northern Territory worsening amid 10-year waits for public housing”

All Media

Best Sports Journalism
Jane Bardon, ABC News Darwin, “Indigenous elder says ‘AFL needs to fix itself’”
Myles Houlbrook-Walk, ABC, “Body of work”
The ABC Alice Spring Team, “Central Australian remote football competition”

Best Crime / Court Reporting
Matt Cunningham, Sky News Australia / Darwin Bureau, “Matt Wright Arrest”
Melissa Mackay, ABC News, “The crime crisis no one is talking about”
David Wood and Christopher Walsh, NT Independent, “Fatal Failures: Behind the scenes of the Zach Rolfe affair”

Pete Davies Memorial Campaigning Journalism Award
Zizi Averill and (A)manda Parkinson, NT News, “Detained and Deprived: Disability in NT jails”
Roxanne Fitzgerald, ABC, “Turning a blind eye”
Lee Robinson – ABC – “Iris Capital pokies war”
The ‘Pete Davies Memorial Campaigning Journalism Award’ category recognises a campaign in any medium – radio, television, print or online – about local issues that has brought about policy or social change for the benefit of Territorians.

Indigenous Affairs Reporting
Jane Bardon, ABC News Darwin, “Toxic mine dust inaction, Water map petition and The police and Peppimenarti”
Lee Robinson, ABC, “Body of Work”
Jesse Thompson, ABC, “Nowhere to turn”

Visual Storytelling
Hamish Harty, ABC, “Body of work”
Liam Mendes, The Australian, “Northern Territory body of work”
(A)manda Parkinson, NT News, “(A)manda Parkinson: Body of Work”This award recognises the use of camera or graphics skills, sometimes combined with audio, to tell a story. It covers still photography and camerawork, artwork (including illustrations, digital photo illustrations, cartoons, or information graphics displaying creativity, innovation and style, combined with artistic technique).

NT Press Club president, Sarah Spina-Matthews, said, “I would like to congratulate all of the winners, finalists and entrants, as well as all of the members of the NT media industry who work hard every day to keep the public informed and hold those in power to account – quality journalism is incredibly important in the Northern Territory and these awards demonstrate the calibre of work being produced here.

“I consider myself lucky to work alongside the reporters, producers, editors, operations staff, camera operators and managers who make what we do possible.”