Sally Sara and Victoria Pengilley

Sally Sara and Victoria Pengilley combined to secure three extraordinary exclusives, painting an unparalleled picture of the plight of Afghan women last year. Meticulously researched, Sara’s interviews exposed the fear, pain and loss felt by women after the fall of Kabul. Her personal courage and composure in directly confronting the Taliban leadership also exemplifies the journalism honoured by this award.

Sally Sara is an award-winning journalist, writer and author. She has reported from more than 40 countries as a foreign correspondent with the ABC, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. Sally has won two Walkley Awards – one for her television reporting on the famine in Somaliland, the other for radio coverage of the fall of Kabul. She has twice been a finalist in the Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year.  She has won four UN Media Awards and been nominated for AACTA and Logie Awards. Sally has written for the New York Times and Boston Globe. In 2011, Sally was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia, AM, for service to journalism and the community.

Victoria Pengilley is a reporter and producer with RN Breakfast, Radio National’s flagship current affairs program. She previously worked with the ABC’s audio current affairs programs AM, PM and the World Today. She completed a BA in Communications (Journalism) with the University of Technology Sydney in 2021.