The Walkley Foundation honours its 2020 Walkley Award-winners through a live broadcast announcement on November 20. The traditional Gala Dinner, planned for Tamworth this year, will now take place in 2021.
2020 has already been huge for the news industry in Australia and around the world, from Australia’s summer bushfires to the global pandemic, from the Black Lives Matter protests to a US election campaign just starting to heat up. It will certainly be a year none of us forgets.
We had hoped that, despite the uncertainty created by COVID-19, we would be able to come together in person to celebrate the hard work, courage, innovation and resilience shown by the media over the past 12 months.
However, the restrictions stemming from COVID-19, including border closures and limitations on guest numbers, sadly make it impossible for us to hold a traditional Gala Dinner this November.
To ensure our 2020 Walkley finalists and winners are recognised while fulfilling our duty of care to all involved, we will broadcast the Walkley Winners announcement on Friday November 20 through our partner, Sky News. The announcement will also be livestreamed on the Walkley website.
COVID-19 is not something we could have anticipated and this was not the outcome we wanted, but we know that together we can still acknowledge and celebrate the amazing work produced in a year like no other.
Was avaiablew to View on-line or Foxtel Channel 603
► Winners are marked
Also see WINNERS
Congratulations to the 2020 Gold Walkley-winners, @markwillacy, @4corners & the ABC Investigations Team for “Killing Field” on Four Corners.
@MarkWillacy’s work was outstanding, and it came after a series of investigations in previous years that together prompted the Brereeton inquiry into war crimes. This has been one of the most significant stories of the year – congratulations Mark and the ABC team.
► Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi
Kate Geraghty, The Sydney Morning Herald
Nick Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD SHORTLIST
Sophie McNeill , We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know , ABC Books
► Lucie Morris-Marr , Fallen , Allen & Unwin
Suzanne Smith , The Altar Boys , ABC Books
WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD SHORTLIST
Against Our Oath , Heather Kirkpatrick, Waratah Films
► Revelation , Sarah Ferguson, Nial Fulton and Tony Jones, ABC and In Films
Storm in a Teacup , Nia Pericles and Celia Tait, Artemis Media and ABC
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
Nigel McNay , The Border Mail , “Ineptitude at heart of shutdown,” “Go into the dark to see the light” and “Someone knows what happened”
Ranjana Srivastava , G uardian Australia , “I am a frontline doctor: here’s how you can help me,” “No Zoom meeting ever replaces the solace of grieving with relatives,” and “How did we miss our colleague’s grief?”
► Tony Wright , The Age , “You learn a bit working on a local paper. It’s all about the people,” “The tragedy of Mary and William, and a federation in chaos again” and “The vaccines that saved the rock ‘n’ roll generation, and many more”
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
Jacqueline Maley and Kate McClymont , The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age , “‘Dirty Dyson’: a harasser on the High Court”
Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters , 60 Minutes , Nine, “Secrets of War”
► Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team , Four Corners , ABC, “Killing Field”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS LONG (MORE THAN 20 MINUTES)
► Nick McKenzie, Joel Tozer and Sumeyya Ilanbey , 60 Minutes , Nine, “The Faceless Man”
Louise Milligan, Mary Fallon and Lauren Day , Four Corners , ABC, “Boys Club”
Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team , Four Corners , ABC, “Killing Field”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS SHORT (LESS THAN 20 MINUTES)
► Marc Fennell, Ninah Kopel and Joel Stillone, The Feed, SBS, “Stuffed: Inside Australia’s Biggest Museum Heist”
Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett , 7.30 , ABC, “Alinta Exposed: Power, lies and privacy breaches”
Dylan Welch, Suzanne Dredge and David Maguire , 7.30 , ABC, “Battlescars”
TELEVISION/VIDEO NEWS REPORTING
► Amelia Brace and Tim Myers , Sunrise, Seven News and The Latest , Seven Network, “Beat the Press: Journalism Under Attack”
Alex Hart , Seven News Sydney , Seven Network “New South Wales Fires”
Chris O’Keefe , Nine News , Nine Network, “The Ruby Princess Emails”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CAMERAWORK
► Adam Bovino , Today and Nine News , Nine, “George Floyd Protests”
Scott Morelli , 60 Minutes , Nine, “Permafrost”
Aaron Smith , ABC TV and ABC iView, “Revelation Episodes 2 & 3”
Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “Black Summer”
David Caird, Sunday Herald Sun, “Behind the COVID Door”
► Nick Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Firestorm”
BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Adele Ferguson, Lesley Robinson and Lauren Day , Four Corners , ABC TV and The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age , Nine Network, “Immoral and unethical”
Jared Lynch and Nick Evans , The Australian , “Ending business payment rorts”
► Michael Roddan , The Australian Financial Review , “#AMPToo – sexual harassment at AMP”
Award Partner Nikon
► Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola”
Brad Fleet, The Advertiser, “One billion deaths”
Jake Nowakowski, Herald Sun, “Extinction Rebellion”
2020 Outstanding Contribution to Journalism Award
Ross Gittins - Economics Editor of SMH
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
► ABC News and ABC Regional and Local Team, ABC , “ABC Bushfire Coverage”
Richard Baker and The Age hotel quarantine news team, The Age , “Hotel quarantine”
Stan Gorton , The Islander , “Kangaroo Island bushfire coverage”
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
► Samantha Maiden , The New Daily, “Hawaii Two-O: Scott Morrison’s bushfire holiday”
Nick McKenzie, Joel Tozer and Sumeyya Ilanbey , 60 Minutes , Nine, “The Faceless Man”
Paul Sakkal and Chloe Booker , The Age , “Hotel quarantine”
PRODUCTION
Casey Briggs, Andrew George, Ryan Kerlin and Peter Matejcek, ABC , “The Curve: COVID-19 data journalism”
► Four Corners Team , Four Corners , ABC, “Black Summer”
Visual Stories Team , The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age , “Invisible Crime – Are we failing victims of sexual violence”
RADIO/AUDIO FEATURE
► Rachael Brown, Josie Taylor, Tim Roxburgh, Marty Peralta and Trace Team , ABC , “Trace: The Informer”
Nicola Harvey, Nakkiah Lui and Miranda Tapsell , Audible , “Debutante”
Hedley Thomas, Slade Gibson and Peter Murphy , The Australian , “The Night Driver”
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Avani Dias , Hack, triple j, ABC, “The colleague, the girl, the police: Student framed and imprisoned over terror offences tells whole story for the first time”
► Dr Norman Swan, Tegan Taylor and Will Ockenden , ABC, “Coronacast”
Mark Willacy, Alexandra Blucher and Rory Callinan , AM , ABC, “The Village Idiot Killing”
Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “Football’s Longest Drive: 2000kms across Central Australia”
Robert Cianflone, Getty Images, “Sporting Arenas”
► Sam Ruttyn, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph , “UFC 243”
SPORTS JOURNALISM
Peter Badel, Travis Meyn, Robert Craddock and Kate Kyriacou , The Courier-Mail , “Fall of the Brisbane Broncos”
► Jessica Halloran and Julian Linden , The Australian and The Daily Telegraph , “On Thin Ice: Katia’s story”
Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Amy Donaldson, Fred Shaw and Justin Stevens , 7.30 , ABC, “[The Final Race](7.30 report “The Final Race” | About the ABC
CARTOON
Glen Le Lievre , Patreon , “Peace at last”
Jim Pavlidis , The Age , “Back in Black, Highway to Hell”
► David Rowe , The Australian Financial Review , “Thoughts and Prayers”
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY OR REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Carla Hildebrandt , Mandurah Mail , “Annette Deverell investigation”
► Matthew Kelly, Helen Gregory, Anita Beaumont and Donna Page , Newcastle Herald , “Your Right to Know”
Charlotte King, Andy Burns and the Background Briefing Team, Background Briefing , ABC, “Regional stillbirths: No one told these country mums why their babies died”
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Stan Grant and the Four Corners Team , Four Corners , ABC, “I Can’t Breathe”
Annabel Hennessy , The West Australian , “Kill or Be Killed? The incarceration of Jody Gore”
► Calla Wahlquist and Lorena Allam , Guardian Australia , “Rio Tinto explodes Juukan Gorge, and BHP’s 24-hour backdown”
INNOVATION
Juliette O’Brien , covid19data.com.au, “Covid-19 Data”
Visual Stories Team , Sydney Morning Herald and The Age , “Invisible Crime – Are we failing victims of sexual violence”
► Dylan Welch, Alexander Palmer, Clare Blumer and Suzanne Dredge , ABC, “Anatomy of a suicide bombing”
FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Harriet Alexander, Nick Moir, Mark Stehle and Richard Lama , The Sydney Morning Herald , “The Monster: A short history of Australia’s biggest forest fire”
► Liam Mannix , The Age , “The Perfect Virus: two gene tweaks that turned COVID-19 into a killer”
Sarah Walker , Australian Book Review , “Contested Breath: The ethics of assembly in an age of absurdity”
FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
Annabel Crabb , Quarterly Essay , “Men at Work: Australia’s Parenthood Trap”
Trent Dalton , The Weekend Australian Magazine , “Back From The Black”
► Russell Jackson , ABC , “The Persecution of Robert Muir”
HEADLINE, CAPTION OR HOOK
► Anthony De Ceglie , The West Australian, “THE ROYAL FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE,” “BRIDGET OVER TROUBLED RORTERS” and “YOU HAD ONE JOBKEEPER”
Baz McAlister , The Courier-Mail , “Apoocalypse Now,” “The Windsor of Our Discontent” and “You Shook ‘Em All Night, Elon”
Duska Sulicich, The Age , “There’s a square in there, and a glare as well,” “Bat hit crazy” and “The laud’s prayer”
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
► Nina Funnell , Kerry Warren and Lori Youmshajekian , news.com.au, The Herald Sun , NT News and The Mercury , “#LetUsSpeak: Victoria blocks sexual assault victims from using real names”, “Give Rape Survivors a Voice” and “Gang rape victim becomes first Tasmanian to speak out following gag law reform”
Chris Vedelago, Sumeyya Ilanbey and Cameron Houston , The Age , “The man who made a toxic waste disaster,” “What happened to us in West Footscray? Firefighters call for answers after toxic fire” and “’Don’t fight’: CFA told to stay home if chemical stash explodes”
Elise Worthington, Lesley Robinson and John Stewart , Four Corners , ABC, “Please Don’t Judge”
PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT
Luke Henriques-Gomes , Guardian Australia , “Robodebt failure exposed by leaked documents”
► Jacqueline Maley and Kate McClymont , The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age , “‘Dirty Dyson’: a harasser on the High Court”
Sharri Markson and Kylar Loussikian , The Australian and The Weekend Australian , “The Thousand Talents Plan”
