The Walkley Foundation is delighted to announce the finalists for the 65th annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
The Walkley Awards are the pre-eminent national journalism awards presented annually in Australia. They recognise and reward the best in the craft and set the industry standard for excellence.
Louisa Graham, chief executive of the Walkley Foundation, said: “This year’s finalists continue to impress with courageous acts of journalism. We had hoped that, despite the uncertainty created by COVID-19, we would be able to come together in person to celebrate the hard work, innovation and resilience shown by our industry over the past 12 months. But to safeguard the health and safety of our journalists, partners and staff we will celebrate virtually. Wherever you are, please join us in raising a toast to this outstanding journalism, which serves the public by informing during crises, sparking inquiries, prompting changes to the law and holding the powerful to account. Cheers!”
Finalists are selected by panels of peers on the basis of overall merit and journalistic excellence. The Walkley Foundation encourages a diversity of entries from journalists around Australia. This year we received 1408 entries.
Judges for this first round are selected by the Walkley Judging Board. You can find information about the Walkley Awards judging process here, and the Terms and Conditions of the Awards here.
The Walkley Foundation has a mechanism for dealing with any conflict of interest, actual or perceived, that may arise during the judging process. The guidelines are based on the principle that all actual conflicts of interest are to be avoided and that even a perceived conflict may be damaging to all parties. You can read more about the conflict of interest guidelines here.
All Walkley Award-winners will be announced in a live broadcast on SKY NEWS EXTRA (Foxtel Channel 603) and streamed on the Walkley website (walkleys.com) from 7pm AEDT on Friday, November 20.
A full list of this year’s finalists and judges follows.
Below is also a list of the winners of the Nikon Photography Prizes.
2020 Walkley Award finalists
PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT
Award Partner Media Super
- Luke Henriques-Gomes, Guardian Australia, “Robodebt failure exposed by leaked documents”
- Jacqueline Maley and Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “‘Dirty Dyson’: a harasser on the High Court”
- Sharri Markson and Kylar Loussikian, The Australian and The Weekend Australian, “The Thousand Talents Plan”
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
Award Partner Sydney Airport
- Nina Funnell, Kerry Warren and Lori Youmshajekian, news.com.au, The Herald Sun, NT News and The Mercury, “#LetUsSpeak: Victoria blocks sexual assault victims from using real names”, “Give Rape Survivors a Voice” and “Gang rape victim becomes first Tasmanian to speak out following gag law reform”
- Chris Vedelago, Sumeyya Ilanbey and Cameron Houston, The Age, “The man who made a toxic waste disaster,” “What happened to us in West Footscray? Firefighters call for answers after toxic fire” and “’Don’t fight’: CFA told to stay home if chemical stash explodes”
- Elise Worthington, Lesley Robinson and John Stewart, Four Corners, ABC, “Please Don’t Judge”
INNOVATION
- Juliette O’Brien, covid19data.com.au, “Covid-19 Data”
- Visual Stories Team, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “Invisible Crime – Are we failing victims of sexual violence”
- Dylan Welch, Alexander Palmer, Clare Blumer and Suzanne Dredge, ABC, “Anatomy of a suicide bombing”
HEADLINE, CAPTION OR HOOK
Award Partner Qantas
- Anthony De Ceglie, The West Australian, “THE ROYAL FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE,” “BRIDGET OVER TROUBLED RORTERS” and “YOU HAD ONE JOBKEEPER”
- Baz McAlister, The Courier-Mail, “Apoocalypse Now,” “The Windsor of Our Discontent” and “You Shook ‘Em All Night, Elon”
- Duska Sulicich, The Age, “There’s a square in there, and a glare as well,” “Bat hit crazy” and “The laud’s prayer”
FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner UQ
- Annabel Crabb, Quarterly Essay, “Men at Work: Australia’s Parenthood Trap”
- Trent Dalton, The Weekend Australian Magazine, “Back From The Black”
- Russell Jackson, ABC, “The Persecution of Robert Muir”
FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
- Harriet Alexander, Nick Moir, Mark Stehle and Richard Lama, The Sydney Morning Herald, “The Monster: A short history of Australia’s biggest forest fire”
- Liam Mannix, The Age, “The Perfect Virus: two gene tweaks that turned COVID-19 into a killer”
- Sarah Walker, Australian Book Review, “Contested Breath: The ethics of assembly in an age of absurdity”
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Award Partner PwC Indigenous Consulting
- Stan Grant and the Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “I Can’t Breathe”
- Annabel Hennessy, The West Australian, “Kill or Be Killed? The incarceration of Jody Gore”
- Calla Wahlquist and Lorena Allam, Guardian Australia, “Rio Tinto explodes Juukan Gorge, and BHP’s 24-hour backdown”
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY OR REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Award Partner BHP
- Carla Hildebrandt, Mandurah Mail, “Annette Deverell investigation”
- Matthew Kelly, Helen Gregory, Anita Beaumont and Donna Page, Newcastle Herald, “Your Right to Know”
- Charlotte King, Andy Burns and the Background Briefing Team, Background Briefing, ABC, “Regional stillbirths: No one told these country mums why their babies died”
CARTOON
- Glen Le Lievre, Patreon, “Peace at last”
- Jim Pavlidis, The Age, “Back in Black, Highway to Hell”
- David Rowe, The Australian Financial Review, “Thoughts and Prayers”
SPORTS JOURNALISM
- Peter Badel, Travis Meyn, Robert Craddock and Kate Kyriacou, The Courier-Mail, “Fall of the Brisbane Broncos”
- Jessica Halloran and Julian Linden, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph, “On Thin Ice: Katia’s story”
- Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Amy Donaldson, Fred Shaw and Justin Stevens, 7.30, ABC, “The Final Race”
SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “Football’s Longest Drive: 2000kms across Central Australia”
- Robert Cianflone, Getty Images, “Sporting Arenas”
- Sam Ruttyn, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, “UFC 243”
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Award Partner ABC
- Avani Dias, Hack, triple j, ABC, “The colleague, the girl, the police: Student framed and imprisoned over terror offences tells whole story for the first time”
- Dr Norman Swan, Tegan Taylor and Will Ockenden, ABC, “Coronacast”
- Mark Willacy, Alexandra Blucher and Rory Callinan, AM, ABC, “The Village Idiot Killing”
RADIO/AUDIO FEATURE
- Rachael Brown, Josie Taylor, Tim Roxburgh, Marty Peralta and Trace Team, ABC, “Trace: The Informer”
- Nicola Harvey, Nakkiah Lui and Miranda Tapsell, Audible, “Debutante”
- Hedley Thomas, Slade Gibson and Peter Murphy, The Australian, “The Night Driver”
PRODUCTION
Award Partner Judith Neilson Institute
- Casey Briggs, Andrew George, Ryan Kerlin and Peter Matejcek, ABC, “The Curve: COVID-19 data journalism”
- Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Black Summer”
- Visual Stories Team, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “Invisible Crime – Are we failing victims of sexual violence”
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nine News
- Samantha Maiden, The New Daily, “Hawaii Two-O: Scott Morrison’s bushfire holiday”
- Nick McKenzie, Joel Tozer and Sumeyya Ilanbey, 60 Minutes, Nine, “The Faceless Man”
- Paul Sakkal and Chloe Booker, The Age, “Hotel quarantine”
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
- ABC News and ABC Regional and Local Team, ABC, “ABC Bushfire Coverage”
- Richard Baker and The Age hotel quarantine news team, The Age, “Hotel quarantine”
- Stan Gorton, The Islander, “Kangaroo Island bushfire coverage”
NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola”
- Brad Fleet, The Advertiser, “One billion deaths”
- Jake Nowakowski, Herald Sun, “Extinction Rebellion”
BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Award Partner ING
- Adele Ferguson, Lesley Robinson and Lauren Day, Four Corners, ABC TV and The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Nine Network, “Immoral and unethical”
- Jared Lynch and Nick Evans, The Australian, “Ending business payment rorts”
- Michael Roddan, The Australian Financial Review, “#AMPToo – sexual harassment at AMP”
FEATURE/PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “Black Summer”
- David Caird, Sunday Herald Sun, “Behind the COVID Door”
- Nick Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Firestorm”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CAMERAWORK
Award Partner Australian Super
- Adam Bovino, Today and Nine News, Nine, “George Floyd Protests”
- Scott Morelli, 60 Minutes, Nine, “Permafrost”
- Aaron Smith, ABC TV and ABC iView, “Revelation Episodes 2 & 3”
TELEVISION/VIDEO NEWS REPORTING
Award Partner Seven
- Amelia Brace and Tim Myers, Sunrise, Seven News and The Latest, Seven Network, “Beat the Press: Journalism Under Attack”
- Alex Hart, Seven News Sydney, Seven Network “New South Wales Fires”
- Chris O’Keefe, Nine News, Nine Network, “The Ruby Princess Emails”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS SHORT (LESS THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner SBS
- Marc Fennell, Ninah Kopel and Joel Stillone, The Feed, SBS, “Stuffed: Inside Australia’s Biggest Museum Heist”
- Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett, 7.30, ABC, “Alinta Exposed: Power, lies and privacy breaches”
- Dylan Welch, Suzanne Dredge and David Maguire, 7.30, ABC, “Battlescars”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS LONG (MORE THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner TEN
- Nick McKenzie, Joel Tozer and Sumeyya Ilanbey, 60 Minutes, Nine, “The Faceless Man”
- Louise Milligan, Mary Fallon and Lauren Day, Four Corners, ABC, “Boys Club”
- Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Killing Field”
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
- Jacqueline Maley and Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “‘Dirty Dyson’: a harasser on the High Court”
- Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, 60 Minutes, Nine, “Secrets of War”
- Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Killing Field”
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
- Nigel McNay, The Border Mail, “Ineptitude at heart of shutdown,” “Go into the dark to see the light” and “Someone knows what happened”
- Ranjana Srivastava, Guardian Australia, “I am a frontline doctor: here’s how you can help me,” “No Zoom meeting ever replaces the solace of grieving with relatives,” and “How did we miss our colleague’s grief?”
- Tony Wright, The Age, “You learn a bit working on a local paper. It’s all about the people,” “The tragedy of Mary and William, and a federation in chaos again” and “The vaccines that saved the rock ‘n’ roll generation, and many more”
WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD SHORTLIST
- Against Our Oath, Heather Kirkpatrick, Waratah Films
- Revelation, Sarah Ferguson, Nial Fulton and Tony Jones, ABC and In Films
- Storm in a Teacup, Nia Pericles and Celia Tait, Artemis Media and ABC
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD SHORTLIST
- Sophie McNeill, We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know, ABC Books
- Lucie Morris-Marr, Fallen, Allen & Unwin
- Suzanne Smith, The Altar Boys, ABC Books
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD LONGLIST
- After the Count (Stephanie Convery, Viking)
- City On Fire (Antony Dapiran, Scribe)
- Hazelwood (Tom Doig, Viking)
- Buckley’s Chance (Garry Linnell, Michael Joseph)
- Body Count (Paddy Manning, S&S)
- We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know (Sophie McNeill, ABC Books)
- Fallen (Lucie Morris-Marr, A&U)
- Penny Wong (Margaret Simons, Black Inc.)
- The Altar Boys (Suzanne Smith, ABC Books)
NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nikon
- Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi
- Kate Geraghty, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Nick Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald
2020 NIKON-WALKLEY PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE WINNERS
These are not Walkley Awards, but prizes administered by the Walkley Foundation on behalf of Nikon. These photos will also appear in the Nikon-Walkley Press Photography exhibition.
NIKON-WALKLEY PHOTO OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Christopher Hopkins, The Age, “I Want to Hold her Hand”
NIKON-WALKLEY PORTRAIT PRIZE
WINNER
James Brickwood, Australian Financial Review Magazine, “Adam Goodes”
NIKON-WALKLEY COMMUNITY/REGIONAL PRIZE
WINNER
Sylvia Liber, Illawarra Mercury, “Strength and Resilience”
NIKON-WALKLEY CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN DAILY LIFE
WINNER
David Gray, Getty Images, “Dealing with drought”
Thank you to the many senior journalists who gave their time to judge the Walkley Awards this year:
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- Sarah Abo, 60 Minutes, Nine
- Gay Alcorn, The Age
- Ghada Ali, The Drum, ABC
- Paul Bailey, The Australian Financial Review
- Bob Barker, Photographer
- Katie Bice, Herald Sun
- Kylie Boltin, SBS
- Brooke Boney, Today, Nine
- Bridget Brennan, ABC
- Alice Brennan, Background Briefing, ABC
- Stephen Brook, The Age
- Nicky Catley, The Sydney Morning Herald
- James Chessell, Nine Australian Metro Publishing
- Ros Childs, ABC
- Kelly Clappis, WIN TV
- Andrew Clennell, Sky News Live
- Rhanna Collins, NITV
- Jenny Coopes, illustrator and cartoonist
- Judith Crispin, Oculi
- Caitlin Crowley, WIN QLD
- Ross Dagan, Network 10
- Helen Dalley, Chair, Walkley Documentary Award
- Ian Darling, Shark Island Productions
- Matthew Doran, ABC
- Melissa Doyle, senior journalist and presenter
- Julian Drape, Guardian Australia
- Margie Easterbrook, The Age
- Christine El-Khoury, Q&A, ABC
- Cherine Fahd, UTS
- Fiona Ferguson, The Northern Daily Leader
- Janet Fife-Yeomans, The Daily Telegraph
- Sophie Foster, News Corp Australia
- Catherine Fox, business writer
- Mary Gearin, ABC TV News Victoria
- Kieran Gilbert, Sky News
- Tony Gillies, AAP
- Peter Gotting, ABC
- Vanessa Graham, The Daily Telegraph
- Scott Hannaford, The Canberra Times
- Adam Harvey, Four Corners, ABC
- Lachlan Heywood, The Daily Mail
- Sandra Jackson, The West Australian
- Narelda Jacobs, Network 10
- Anita Jacoby, senior TV producer
- Rae Johnston, NITV
- Aparna Khopkar, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Ray Kuka, 7 News Perth
- Antoinette Lattouf, Network 10
- Chip Le Grand, The Age
- Geoff Lemon, writer and broadcaster
- Julie Lewis, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Catherine Liddle, First Nations Media
- Tim Love, Sky News
- Xavier Mardling, Newcastle Herald
- Philippa McDonald, ABC
- Phillipa McGuinness, non-fiction publisher and author
- Shane McInnes, 3AW/Nine
- Leila McKinnon, Nine
- Brett McLeod, Nine News Melbourne
- Rick McPhee, CJZ
- Christine Middap, The Weekend Australian Magazine
- Karen Middleton, The Saturday Paper
- Wes Mountain, The Conversation
- Oliver Murray, news.com.au
- Alex Needs, Nine
- Sally Neighbour, Four Corners, ABC
- Peter Norden, Deakin University
- Margot O’Neill, senior journalist
- Jamie Pandaram, News Corp Australia
- Gareth Parker, 6PR
- Janice Petersen, SBS
- Helen Pitt, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Isabella Pittaway, ABC Rural South Australia Country Hour
- Hugh Riminton, Network 10
- Louise Roberts, The Daily Telegraph
- Fiona Stager, Avid Reader Bookshop
- Edmund Tadros, The Australian Financial Review
- Cameron Tandy, Herald Sun
- Sarah-Jane Tasker, WestBusiness
- Kirsty Thomson, 60 Minutes, Nine
- Brian Thomson, SBS
- Helen Tzarimas, ABC
- Jim Waley, senior journalist
- Ellen Whinnett, News360
- Evie White, News Corp Australia
- Kathryn Wicks, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Pamela Williams, The Australian Financial Review
- Lucy Zelic, SBS World News
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