SEVEN NEWS DOMINATES QUILL AWARDS
Seven News were the big winners at tonight’s Quill Awards, taking home four top honours at the Melbourne Press Club’s leading media awards celebrating excellence in Victorian journalism.
Senior police and crime reporter Cameron Baud won the Quill for Best TV or Video News Report following his Puneet Puneet exclusive last July. After months of planning and careful consideration, Cameron secured interviews with Puneet and his parents in Delhi on the day Puneet was required to front court as part of the bid to extradite him back to Melbourne, following his fatal hit-and-run at Southbank in 2008.
Senior cameraman Will Pristel was awarded the Quill for Best Camera Work for his nimble capture of the woman who pushed the policeman on Cup Day. “The policeman being pushed took only a matter of seconds, however I was observing the lady’s actions leading up to this moment for a few minutes – I was keeping a keen eye on her demeanour, these situations develop quickly so it’s always wise to keep the camera rolling,” Will explains.
Seven News presenter Jacqueline Felgate and Seven News’ Emily Angwin won the Quill for Best Breaking News Coverage after breaking a harrowing lake rescue story under immense deadline pressure that saw Seven News obtain exclusive vision of the attempted rescue of four children from a sinking car. Jacqueline was able to secure interviews with witnesses while she fed fresh information back to producer Emily Angwin, who wrote and edited a lead story in less than 20 minutes. Seven News arrived at the chaotic scene after 5pm and by 6pm Jacqueline broke the story via a live cross for the lead at 6pm.
Seven News reporter Christie Cooper was awarded the Quill for The TAC Towards Zero Road Safety Quill for a number of powerful reports which drove home the severity of road safety issues. “I’m very mindful of how meaningless statistics can be, if you don’t understand the underlying personal impact that is felt by victims and emergency service workers,” Christie said.