The Walkley Foundation is delighted to announce the finalists for our 2021 Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism.
Peer-judged and selected on the basis of journalistic excellence, the Mid-Year Celebration suite includes the Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards, June Andrews Award for Industrial Relations Reporting, June Andrews Award for Freelance Journalist of the Year, June Andrews Award for Women’s Leadership in Media, Our Watch Award, Media Diversity Australia Award, Humanitarian Storytelling Award, June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism and The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism.
Walkley Foundation chief executive Louisa Graham said the high standard of the finalists was a testament to their work in a challenging year, work that has never been more essential to Australians.
“A strong, fair and diverse media is vital in strengthening and sustaining our democracy, and these honours go to our key mission to encourage excellence and best-practice, ethical journalism,” Ms Graham said.
“This year we’re delighted that winners of the Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards will not only be matched with mentors thanks to support from the Jibb Foundation, but will also be offered a place to study a UNSW AGSM short course. Along with our scholarships, fellowships and grants, these programs elevate our industry through professional development.”
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. Judges are selected by the Walkley Judging Board. 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.
Winners of all the awards will be announced at the Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism on June 16. At the Celebration, winners will also be announced for the Jacoby-Walkley Scholarship with Nine, the WIN News Scholarship, the Walkley Young Indigenous Scholarship, the JNI Opportunity Fellowships and the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism.
In each award below, the finalists are listed in alphabetical order.
Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year
Supported by Jibb Foundation
The winner of each of the six categories below will be eligible for the overall Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Award. The ultimate winner will receive a two-week trip to US newsrooms (flights included) and a mentorship program to boost their career. In 2021 this prize will include placements at Buzzfeed, Columbia Journalism Review and Quartz Media.
The winner of each of the six categories will receive a complimentary place in an AGSM short course at UNSW Business School.
Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards
These awards recognise the hard work of our most outstanding young Australian journalists. They reward the efforts of journalists aged 28 and under who demonstrate excellence in the fundamental tenets of the profession, as well as the ability to present distinctive and original journalism that pushes the boundaries of the craft.
Shortform journalism
Supported by ABC
- Natassia Chrysanthos, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Hundreds of Sydney students claim they were sexually assaulted”
- Annabel Hennessy, The West Australian and The Sunday Times, “Annaliesse Ugle series”
- Paul Sakkal, The Age, “Melbourne Hotel Quarantine”
Longform feature or special
Supported by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
- Mridula Amin, ABC News and 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”
Coverage of community and regional affairs
Supported by Google News Initiative
- Briana Fiore, South Western Times, Harvey-Waroona Reporter, Bunbury Herald and The West Australian, “Bunbury Hospital Investigation”
- Kieran Pender, Guardian Australia, “From the ashes of catastrophe: how ‘aqua therapy’ is helping a town through 2020” “New Year’s Eve bushfire survivors look back on a year of loss and recovery” and, “’Inexcusable’: the bushfire survivors blocked from rebuilding”
- Eamonn Snow, Backchat, FBi Radio, “Pollution in Kincumber Creek and a failure of NSW environmental regulation”
Visual storytelling
Supported by Macleay College
- 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
Supported by News Corp Australia
- 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”
Student journalist of the year
Supported by Twitter
- Emily Kowal, Central News UTS, University of Technology Sydney, “The Haunting of Woodford Academy”
- Georgios Platias, Central News UTS and Very Public Affairs Podcast, University of Technology Sydney, “Inside Out: Mohsen’s Story” and “Politics, Leadership, and Public Policy with Peter van Onselen”
- Stephanie Tran, Michael West Media and University of Technology Sydney, “State Capture: top corporations identified as members of both Liberal and Labor parties”
June Andrews Award for Industrial Relations Reporting
Supported by Ai Group, Unions NSW, ACTU and MEAA
- Kelmeny Fraser and Cormac Pearson, The Sunday Mail, “Working class sham – inside the taxpayer-funded jobs deception”
- Cait Kelly, The New Daily, “Modern slavery’: This is what it is really like working on Aussie farms”
- Ben Schneiders, Royce Millar and Liam Mannix, The Age, “A city divided: COVID-19 finds a weakness in Melbourne’s social fault lines,” “All in this together? How rich and poor are travelling in lockdown” and “Starved out of Australia: The workers without money or food”
June Andrews Award for Freelance Journalist of the Year
Supported by Media Super
- Camille Bianchi, Acast, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, “The Nurse Podcast”
- Nina Funnell, News.com.au, Herald Sun, The Mercury and The Courier-Mail, “Let Her Speak”
- Andrew Quilty, The Intercept, The Monthly and Afghanistan After America, Podcast, “The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads” “The Worst Form of Defence” and “Afghanistan After America: A Podcast”
June Andrews Award for Women’s Leadership in Media
Supported by PwC
- Nina Funnell, Kerry Warren, Gina McWilliams, Hannah Stenning and Georgia-Kate Schubert, news.com.au, The Herald Sun, The Mercury, The Courier-Mail and NT News, “Let Her Speak”
- Samantha Maiden, news.com.au, “Young staffer Brittany Higgins says she was raped at Parliament House”, “Female Labor staffers warn male MPs they will ‘no longer keep their secrets’”and “Government’s ‘confusing’ new education campaign uses tacos and milkshakes to explain consent”
- Sherele Moody, Sunshine Coast Daily and The RED HEART Campaign website, “One monstrous day in May, a child killer changed our lives”, “Malki went to eat pizza with a friend. She never came home” and “ALL THAT REMAINS: Memorial to Women and Children Lost to Violence”
Our Watch Award
Administered by The Walkley Foundation
- 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
Supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross and administered by The Walkley Foundation
- 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
Supported by Media Diversity Australia, CoHealth and The National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters’ Council and administered by The Walkley Foundation
- 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”
Arts Journalism
The following two awards recognise excellence in journalism about the creative arts, from the perspectives of both practitioners and critics. Through the generous support of the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, the winners of the June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism and The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism will each receive $5000 in prize money.
June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism
Supported by Copyright Agency
- Kelly Burke, Guardian Australia, “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”
- Alison Croggon, The Saturday Paper, “A different hope”
- Marc Fennell, Zoe Ferguson, Amruta Slee and Martin Peralta, ABC Radio, “Stuff the British Stole”
The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism
Supported by the Geraldine Pascall Foundation and the Copyright Agency, and administered by the Walkley Foundation
- Anwen Crawford, The Monthly, “New air in familiar rooms”, “Ready steady gone” and “Girls don’t cry: Arlo Parks and Phoebe Bridgers”
- Madeleine Johanna Gray, Overland, The Saturday Paper and The Monthly, “Fucking old white men: on Raven Leilani’s Luster”, “The Gender of Genius: The Queen’s Gambit” and “The summer’s tale: On Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet”
- Sheila Ngoc Pham, Sydney Review of Books, “Coming of age in Cabramatta”
Thank you to our judges
Each year hundreds of journalists, editors and producers give their time to judge our awards. Thank you to all those who judged this year:
- Gemma Acton, Seven
- Monica Attard, UTS
- Michael Bachelard, The Age
- Van Badham, Guardian Australia
- Jordan Baker, Sydney Morning Herald
- Rob Beaumont, WIN News NSW
- Yaara Bou Melhem, freelance
- Adam Bovino, Nine
- Amelia Brace, Seven
- Michael Brissenden, ABC
- Jenny Brockie
- Rowan Callick, freelance
- Lucy Carne, The Sunday Mail
- Maddison Connaughton, The Saturday Paper
- David Chau, ABC
- Dimity Clancey, ACA, Nine
- Kelly Clappis, WIN News Victoria
- Rhanna Collins, NITV
- Jared Constable, WIN News
- Danielle Cronin, The Brisbane Times
- Debbie Cuthbertson, The Age
- Ross Dagan, Ten
- Matt Deighton, The Advertiser
- Sean Dorney
- Tim Dornin, AAP
- Shannan Dodson
- Tim Douglas, Review, The Australian
- Marc Fennell, SBS and ABC
- Kate Geraghty, Sydney Morning Herald
- Holly Green, Ten
- Claire Harvey, The Australian
- Eliza Harvey, ABC News 24
- Nicola Harvey, independent producer
- Nour Haydar, ABC
- Shelley Hepworth, Guardian Australia
- Georgina Hill, Ten
- Andrea Ho, Media Diversity Australia
- Jane Howard, The Conversation
- Vanessa Hughes, ABC Classic FM
- Fauziah Ibrahim, ABC Weekend Breakfast
- Sumeyya Ilanbey, The Age
- Anita Jacoby AM
- Gabrielle Jackson, Guardian Australia
- Alex Johnston, WIN News
- Melanie Kembrey, The Age
- Christie Kerr, The Project, Ten
- Misha Ketchell, The Conversation
- Stella Lauri, WIN News
- Andrew Lund, Nine Melbourne
- Liam Mannix, The Age
- Alice Matthews, The Feed, SBS
- Corinne May, WIN News
- David Meagher, The Australian
- David Munk, Guardian Australia
- Hugh Nailon, Nine
- Alex Needs, Nine
- Anne Maria Nicholson, ABC
- Holly Nott, AAP
- Mary-Louise O’Callaghan
- Melanie Pilling
- Jenna Price, The Canberra Times and Sydney Morning Herald
- Alison Rourke, Guardian Australia
- Sam Ruttyn, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph
- Alison Sandy, Seven
- Tory Shepherd, freelance
- Lenore Taylor, Guardian Australia
- Kirsty Thompson, Nine
- Grace Tobin, ABC
- Emily Verdouw, freelance
- Tracy Vo, Nine
- Jim Waley
- Chad Watson, ACM
- Dorothy Wickham, Melanesia News Network
- Gyan Yankovich, Junkee
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