Five Australian Community Media journalists have been named finalists in the 2019 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
Newcastle Herald reporters Donna Page and Nick Bielby were nominated for the best coverage of regional affairs for their series Dirty Deeds on the toxic legacy of Maitland company TrueGain.
In the same category, Ballarat Courier reporter Caleb Cluff was nominated for reporting on systemic issues of bullying and misogyny within Victorian prisons.
Newcastle Herald senior writer and former Gold Walkley Award winner Joanne McCarthy was named in the feature writing category alongside the Sydney Morning Herald's Amanda Hooton for their feature The Nightmare Within exploring the fallout of medical mesh.
McCarthy and Hooton had previously been nominated for a Kennedy award for the same piece, while Page and Bielby's work was also shortlisted as the NSW awards held in August.
Canberra Times cartoonist Pat Campbell was shortlisted for a Walkley for his powerful and memorable response to the Christchurch massacre.
The cartoon, simply called Christchurch Fern, depicts 50 Muslims in various stages of prayer, representing 50 victims of the New Zealand shootings on March 15, 2019. In May, the death toll rose to 51.
Campbell told the Times' reporter Megan Doherty in March that the image, which went viral internationally, came to him "relatively easily" as he woke the day after the shooting.
"I know the silver fern is an important symbol for New Zealand. Then my mind turned to the image itself, and how the leaves of the fern resembled figures," he said.
Campbell received a Walkley award for best illustration in 2013 for his poignant comment on Julia Gillard's prime ministership.
The new Walkley honours follow Newcastle Herald photographer Max Mason-Hubers winning the Nikon-Walkley Community/Regional Prize, which was announced last week.
THE FULL LIST OF FINALISTS
PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT
- Michael Koziol and Jennifer Duke, The Sydney Morning Herald, "Guthrie ordered to sack top ABC reporter", "ABC chair's 'bias' email" and "Revealed: ABC boss' secret dossier"
- Kirsty Needham, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, "Xinjiang - the buildings where people go in, but don't come out"
- Ben Schneiders and Royce Millar, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, "SourDough: Australia's High-End Restaurant Scandal"
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
- Anne Connolly, Mary Fallon and Patricia Drum, Four Corners, ABC TV and ABC Digital, "Who Cares?"
- Louise Milligan and the Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC TV and ABC News Online, "Guilty: An investigation into George Pell"
- Mark Willacy, Peter Cronau, Louie Eroglu and Naomi Selvaratnam, Four Corners, ABC TV, "Inside the Watch House"
INNOVATION
- ABC News Team, abc.net.au, "Satellite storytelling"
- Kylie Boltin, Matt Smith and Tamara Dean, SBS, "Missing: The Story of Abducted School Girl Wendy Pfeiffer and the Pitjantjatjara Trackers who found her"
- Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Exposed & ABC Digital Team, ABC, "EXPOSED: The Case of Keli Lane"
HEADLINE, CAPTION OR HOOK
- Anthony DeCeglie, The West Australian, "FAKE EWES", "PREY TO GOD" and "THE ESSENCE OF HUMANITY"
- Baz McAlister, The Courier-Mail, "Time to Haul Ass", "Give 'Em a Finch and They'll Take a Mine" "Halal... Is it Meals You're Sooking For"
- Duska Sulicich, The Age and The Sunday Age, "The Instagram Generation", "Bold and the Baroque" and "The Stringer"
FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
- Amanda Hooton and Joanne McCarthy, Good Weekend Magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, "The Nightmare Within"
- Cameron Stewart, The Weekend Australian Magazine, "Joe Hockey's Game"
- Sam Vincent, The Monthly, "A Nagging Doubt: The Retrial of David Eastman"
FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
- Michael Barnes, Good Weekend, The Sydney Morning Herald, "Counting down the days in God's waiting room"
- Martin McKenzie-Murray, The Saturday Paper, "Rosie Batty: the private toll of public grief"
- James Oaten, Danny Morgan and Jane Cowan, ABC, "Catching a Catfish"
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
- Lorena Allam, Guardian Australia and the University of Newcastle's Colonial Frontiers Massacre Project, Guardian Australia, "The Killing Times"
- Andy Burns and Geoff Thompson, 7.30, ABC, "Standing Tall"
- Amy McQuire, Griffith Review 65: Crimes and Punishments, "White justice, black suffering: Extracting false confessions"
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY OR REGIONAL AFFAIRS
- Caleb Cluff, The Ballarat Courier, "The Boys' Club: Female prison staff reveal brutal culture of abuse"
- Donna Page and Nick Bielby, Newcastle Herald, "Dirty Deeds"
- Sam Tomlin and ABC Kimberley Team, ABC, "Coverage of the Kimberley suicide crisis"
CARTOON
- Pat Campbell, The Canberra Times, "Christchurch Fern"
- Matt Golding, The Age, "Tip of the Iceberg"
- Jon Kudelka, The Australian, "Thirteen O'Clock"
SPORTS JOURNALISM
- Malcolm Knox and Nigel Gladstone, The Sun-Herald, "Caught Out: Cricket's Inflated Player Numbers Revealed"
- Samantha Lane, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, "Adam Goodes: My love for the game died inside me"
- Catherine Marciniak, Compass, ABC TV, ABC iView and ABC Australia YouTube channel, "Leagueability"
SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
- Craig Golding, AAP, "Invictus Games 2018"
- Quinn Rooney, Getty Images, "The Art of Sports Photography"
- Cameron Spencer, Getty Images, "H20"
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
- Anne Connolly and Background Briefing team, ABC Radio National, "The sexual abuse scandal nobody's talking about"
- Adam Harvey, AM, ABC, "The Survivors of ISIS"
- Gareth Parker, 6PR, "BHP royalties fight"
RADIO/AUDIO FEATURE
- Ruby Jones, Neil Mercer and Team Unravel True Crime, ABC, "Unravel Season 2: Barrenjoey Road"
- Kirsti Melville, Earshot, ABC Radio National, "The Ghosts of Wittenoom"
- Robyn Ravlich, Earshot, ABC Radio National, "Robert Manne's Voice"
PRODUCTION
- Fadzil Hamzah, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, "The Ibrahim Tapes"
- Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Exposed & ABC Digital Team, ABC, "EXPOSED: The Case of Keli Lane"
- Ali Rae, Al Jazeera English, "All Hail The Algorithm"
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
- Al Jazeera Investigations Unit, Al Jazeera Media Network, "How to Sell a Massacre"
- Josh Gerstein and Zoya Sheftalovich, POLITICO, "'That's just insane': Australia's secret deal with the U.S."
- Sophie McNeill, Four Corners, ABC, "Escape from Saudi"
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
- Melissa Davey and Guardian Australia Team, Guardian Australia, "Coverage of George Pell verdict"
- Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, Herald Sun, "Lawyer X Informer Scandal"
- Adam Harvey, Tom Hancock and Suzanne Dredge, 7.30 and 7pm News, ABC TV, "Fall of the Caliphate"
NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
- Chris McGrath, Getty Images, "The Disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi"
- Matt Roberts, ABC, "The Second Coming of Senator Lambie"
- Jason South, The Age, "Pell"
BUSINESS JOURNALISM
- Adele Ferguson, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, "Secret interviews reveal risky business for NAB's top executives"
- Angus Grigg, Lisa Murray and Jonathan Shapiro, The Australian Financial Review, "The UBS loan scandal"
- Nick McKenzie, Nick Toscano and Grace Tobin, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes, Nine, "Crown Unmasked"
FEATURE/PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
- Chris McGrath, Getty Images, "The End of the Caliphate"
- Ryan Pierse, Getty Images, "The Unlosable Election"
- Jason South, The Age, "Christchurch Massacre"
TELEVISION/VIDEO: CAMERAWORK
- Louie Eroglu, Four Corners, ABC, "Proud Country"
- Tom Hancock, 7pm News and 7.30, ABC, "On the frontline: the final days of Islamic State's 'caliphate'"
- Paul Walker, Seven News, Seven Network, "Sydney Stabbing"
TELEVISION/VIDEO: NEWS REPORTING
- Seven News Brisbane Team, Seven News Brisbane, "North Queensland Flood Coverage"
- Seven News Sydney Team, Seven News Sydney, "Sydney Stabbing Rampage"
- Hannah Sinclair, Nine News, "Christchurch gunman's family breaks silence"
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS SHORT (LESS THAN 20 MINUTES)
- Paul Farrell and Alex McDonald, 7.30, ABC, "Robodebt revelations"
- Ali Rae, Al Jazeera English "All Hail The Algorithm"
- Emily Verdouw, BuzzFeed, "Here's What Refugee Kids Suffering From A Rare Syndrome In Sweden Can Tell Us About Australia's Offshore Detention Centres"
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS LONG (MORE THAN 20 MINUTES)
- Anne Connolly, Mary Fallon and Patricia Drum, Four Corners, ABC TV, "Who Cares?"
- Suzanne Dredge, Dylan Welch, David Maguire and Janine Cohen, Four Corners, ABC TV, "Orphans of ISIS"
- Nick McKenzie, Grace Tobin and Nick Toscano, 60 Minutes, Nine, "Crown Unmasked"
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
- Al Jazeera Investigations Unit, Al Jazeera Media Network, "How to Sell a Massacre"
- Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, Herald Sun, "Lawyer X Informer Scandal"
- Angus Grigg, Lisa Murray, Jonathan Shapiro and Edmund Tadros, The Australian Financial Review, "The Paladin Affair-cashing in on refugees"
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
- Waleed Aly, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Project, Network Ten, "Rage and Restraint"
- Paul Daley, The Guardian, "Interrogating the Past"
- Jan Fran, The Feed, SBSVICELAND and associated social media channels, "The Frant"
WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD SHORTLIST
- Aftermath: Beyond Black Saturday, Joe Connor, Ken Connor and Lucy Maclaren, Renegade Films and ABC
- The Australian Dream, Stan Grant, Dan Gordon, GoodThing Productions and Passion Pictures UK
- The Final Quarter, Ian Darling, Sally Fryer and Mary Macrae, Shark Island Productions
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD LONGLIST
- Gabrielle Chan, Rusted Off, Vintage, Penguin Random House Australia
- Adele Ferguson, Banking Bad, ABC Books, HarperCollinsPublishersAustralia
- Ean Higgins, The Hunt for MH370, Pan Macmillan Australia
- Jess Hill, See What You Made Me Do, Black Inc.
- Damon Kitney, The Price of Fortune, HarperCollinsPublishersAustralia
- Patrick Mullins, Tiberius with a Telephone, Scribe
- Andrew Rule, Winx: The Authorised Biography, Allen & Unwin
- Leigh Sales, Any Ordinary Day, Penguin Random House Australia
- Matthew Warren, Blackout, Affirm Press
NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
- Scott Barbour, Getty Images and AAP
- Chris McGrath, Getty Images
- Jeremy Piper, National Geographic, Oculi and AAP
- Scott Barbour, Getty Images and AAP
- Chris McGrath, Getty Images
- Jeremy Piper, National Geographic, Oculi and AAP
- Scott Barbour, Getty Images and AAP
- Chris McGrath, Getty Images
- Jeremy Piper, National Geographic, Oculi and AAP
- Scott Barbour, Getty Images and AAP
- Chris McGrath, Getty Images
- Jeremy Piper, National Geographic, Oculi and AAP
- Scott Barbour, Getty Images and AAP
- Chris McGrath, Getty Images
- Jeremy Piper, National Geographic, Oculi and AAP