The 2024 Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism opens on Monday, 4 March.
The Mid-Years are a standalone series of awards, held separately from the Walkley Awards, announced in November.
The Mid-Year Awards are not Walkley Awards. They are judged by panels of specialist judges with no involvement from the Walkley Judging Board.
The Walkley Judging Board however selects the winner of the John B Fairfax Family Young Journalist of the Year.
The Mid-Years, to be presented on 20 June at Pier One Sydney Harbour, include six categories in The John B Fairfax Family Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards, The June Andrews Awards for Freelance Journalist of the Year, Women’s Leadership in Media, Industrial Relations Reporting, Arts Journalism, The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism, The Our Watch Award for Excellence in Reporting on Violence Against Women, The Humanitarian Storytelling Award and Media Diversity Australia Award.
The annual event also includes the presentation of The Jacoby-Walkley Scholarship with Nine, The WIN News Broadcast Scholarship, The Walkley Indigenous Scholarship with Junkee Media and 10 News First, and The Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism.
The Walkley Foundation has today announced the addition of a new award category for Coverage of Science and the Environment. This award will recognise an exceptional contribution to the public’s understanding of science and/or environmental issues by celebrating reporting that educates and engages audiences and illuminates complex issues.
Walkley Foundation CEO Shona Martyn said: “The Walkley Foundation directors’ decision to introduce a new Mid-Year award for Science and Environment reflects the growing amount of journalism in these important areas.
“The new award sits alongside existing Mid-Year Awards that recognise journalism that focuses on important issues of our time, such as media diversity, humanitarian and gendered violence.
“The Foundation has listened to the many journalists who have asked the foundation for a more specific category award to recognise journalists covering important issues like medical and advanced science, innovation, climate change; environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, deforestation, and air, earth and water pollution, across all forms of media.
“I expect strong entries in this category given the breadth and quality of work in these areas in the past year.”
Full details of the new award category will be announced on Monday, 4 March. It will be open to Australian journalists working in all media categories.
In addition, an important update for all journalists entering the 2024 Mid-Years, entries in all categories will close on Monday, 15 April, slightly earlier than usual to allow more time for judging.