SYDNEY — The Walkley Foundation tonight announced winners for this year’s suite of mid-year awards.
Peer-judged and selected on the basis of journalistic excellence, the Mid-Year Awards encompass seven awards, including the Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards, as well as the Jacoby-Walkley Scholarship, the Arts Journalism Awards and the Women’s Leadership in Media, Freelancer of the Year and Industrial Reporting Awards. The announcement took place at The Beresford in Sydney.
SBS journalist Laura Murphy-Oates was crowned as the 2018 Young Australia Journalist of the Year, winning a 2-week trip to US newsrooms. The Walkley Advisory Board, represented by Angelos Frangopoulos, Lenore Taylor, Simon Crerar and Claire Harvey, was unanimous in naming her as winner.
“Laura’s body of work was outstanding,” they said in their comments. “We couldn’t look away. The fact that she was a winner in two categories also speaks to the high quality of her work, the depth of her reporting, her ability to draw insights from interviewees, and her skill in crafting a narrative that engaged viewers.”
The full list of winners is below.
You can view photographs of the Mid-Year award-winners in our Facebook album.
Media assets are available here – including high-resolution images of the winners, their bios and the judges’ comments.
Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards
WALKLEY YOUNG AUSTRALIAN JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Laura Murphy-Oates, The Feed, SBS Viceland and Dateline, SBS TV, “Young and black” “Kids of Kalgoorlie” “Vanished: Canada’s missing women”
Supported by: Jibb Foundation
Thanks to the support of the Jibb Foundation, Laura will fly to the USA to undertake two weeks’ worth of work experience with BuzzFeed, The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, Twitter and Quartz. All category winners will also receive mentoring from senior journalists.
SHORTFORM JOURNALISM
Cassie Zervos, Herald Sun, “Investigation into illegal solariums”
Supported by: ABC
LONGFORM FEATURE OR SPECIAL
Laura Murphy-Oates, The Feed, SBS Viceland, “Kids of Kalgoorlie”
Supported by: Fairfax Media
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Samara Gardner, WIN News Illawarra and WIN News Canberra, “The Tathra inferno”
Supported by: UNSW
VISUAL STORYTELLING
Emily Verdouw, The Feed, SBS Viceland, “Dangerous games?”
Supported by: Sky NEWS
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
Laura Murphy-Oates, The Feed, SBS Viceland and Dateline, SBS TV, “Young and black” “Kids of Kalgoorlie” “Vanished: Canada’s missing women”
Supported by: News Corp Australia
STUDENT JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Christiane Barro, Monash University and The New Daily, “The cannabis oil ‘healers’ preying on Australia’s sick and dying” “Contaminants detected in unlicensed cannabis oil products” “‘It’s a disgrace’: Senator requests complete overhaul of medicinal cannabis regulator”
Supported by: Macleay College
Helen O’Flynn & Alan Knight Award for Best Industrial Reporting
Emma Field and Vanessa Marsh, The Weekly TImes, The Courier-Mail, Townsville Bulletin, Bundaberg NewsMail and The Rural Weekly, “Pacific worker program death count”
Supported by Ai Group, Australian Super, Unions NSW, ACTU, UTS and MEAA
Women’s Leadership in Media Award
Jane Caro, The Saturday Paper, ABC News online and University of Queensland Press, “Women’s Entrappings of High Office” “Women over 50 are living out two fates that show feminism is an incomplete project” “Unbreakable: Women share stories of resilience and hope”
Supported by: PwC Australia
Freelance Journalist of the Year
Karishma Vyas, Al Jazeera English, “Bride and brothels: The Rohingya Trade” “Afghanistan: Asylum denied” “Forced back to cambodia”
Supported by: Media Super and MEAA
Arts Journalism Award
Gabriella Coslovich, Melbourne University Press, “Whiteley on Trial”
Supported by: Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and Google News Initiative
Walkley-Pascall Award for Arts Criticism
Delia Falconer, The Sydney Review of Books, “The opposite of glamour”
Supported by: Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and Geraldine Pascall Foundation
Jacoby-Walkley Scholarship
- Benjamin Ansell, The University of Melbourne
- Amber Schultz, Monash University
Supported by: Anita Jacoby, Nine Network and AFTRS
Contact the Walkleys
- Media enquiries: Clare Fletcher, clare.fletcher@walkleys.com / 02 9333 0925 or 0432 616 810
- Award questions: Lauren Dixon, lauren.dixon@walkleys.com / 02 9333 0913 or 0413212890
The Walkley Foundation thanks all partners for their support:
