2024 Television/Video: News Reporting

Ben Lewis’s three news reports on the October 7 attacks in Israel included an exclusive interview with the only Australian survivor of the kibbutz assaults.

Anthony was deeply shaken but wanted the world to know what his young family had been through. Lewis added no voiceover and minimal prompting to the interview, alongside footage Anthony had filmed during his ordeal.

As the only Australian journalists allowed access to the Nova rave site, where 364 people had been killed, Lewis and his team tried to convey the fear that those who had attended the rave must have felt. Much of what they filmed was too graphic to broadcast. During filming, Israeli soldiers started firing at an unidentified man who approached.

Lewis also interviewed the daughter of a missing woman presumed to have been taken hostage. She was insisting that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) must increase its bombing campaign on Gaza, despite the risk to her mother. It later turned out her mother had been killed in her kibbutz.

As they filmed near Gaza, the area was under constant rocket fire and Lewis had to take cover dozens of times.

Ben Lewis is the chief international correspondent for SBS News, based in London. In 2023, Lewis won this category with Colin Cosier. These stories were filmed by freelance camerawoman Emily Wither and produced by local fixer Dana Karni.