Walkley Award winners 2020

Chris Pash
By Chris Pash | 23 November 2020
“A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola” Image: Matthew Abbott, 2020 Walkley Award winner

Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team won the 2020 Gold Walkley for the Killing Field, exposing alleged war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

Matthew Abbott was named the Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year for his work covering the Summer Bushfires and COVID-19.

Lucie Morris-Marr’s Fallen (Allen & Unwin) won the Walkley Book Award.

Sarah Ferguson, Nial Fulton and Tony Jones’ haunting documentary Revelation (ABC and InFilms) won the Walkley Documentary Award.

The award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism went to Ross Gittins, for his 40-year commitment to making economics and public policy not only accessible but a must read. He was also honoured for his dedication to mentoring many generations of journalists.

The 65th Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism were presented in 30 categories.

The chair of the Walkley Judging Board, Lenore Taylor, praised the range and depth of this year’s winners.

“During last summer’s fires factual information at times made the difference between life and death,” she says.

“Likewise, facts have been the most important tool for limiting the spread of the coronavirus, and our audiences have had a seemingly insatiable thirst for information. It was the role of journalists to go out and bring us reliable information – because facts are what we do."

The 2020 Walkley Award winners

PRINT/TEXT: NEWS REPORT
Award Partner Media Super

Jacqueline Maley and Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “‘Dirty Dyson’: A harasser on the High Court”

PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
Award Partner Sydney Airport

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”

INNOVATION
Award Partner Google News Initiative

Dylan Welch, Alexander Palmer, Clare Blumer and Suzanne Dredge, ABC, “Anatomy of a suicide bombing”

HEADLINE, CAPTION OR HOOK
Award Partner Qantas

Anthony De Ceglie, The West Australian, “The Royal Formerly Known As Prince,” “Bridget Over Troubled Rorters” and “You Had One JobKeeper”

PRINT/TEXT: FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner UQ

Russell Jackson, ABC, “The Persecution of Robert Muir”

PRINT/TEXT: FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age

Liam Mannix, The Age, “The Perfect Virus: Two gene tweaks that turned COVID-19 into a killer”

COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Award Partner PwC Indigenous Consulting

Calla Wahlquist and Lorena Allam, Guardian Australia, “Rio Tinto explodes Juukan Gorge, and BHP’s 24-hour backdown”

COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY OR REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Award Partner BHP

Matthew Kelly, Helen Gregory, Anita Beaumont and Donna Page, Newcastle Herald, “Your Right to Know”

CARTOON

David Rowe, The Australian Financial Review, “Thoughts and Prayers”

SPORTS JOURNALISM

Jessica Halloran and Julian Linden, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph, “On Thin Ice: Katia’s story”

SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon

Sam Ruttyn, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, “UFC 243”

RADIO/AUDIO: NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Award Partner ABC

Dr Norman Swan, Tegan Taylor and Will Ockenden, ABC, “Coronacast”

RADIO/AUDIO: FEATURE

Rachael Brown, Josie Taylor, Tim Roxburgh, Marty Peralta and Trace Team, ABC, “Trace: The Informer”

PRODUCTION
Award Partner Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas

Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Black Summer”

SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nine News

Samantha Maiden, The New Daily, “Hawaii Two-O: Scott Morrison’s bushfire holiday”

COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
Award Partner Facebook

ABC News and ABC Regional and Local Team, ABC, “ABC Bushfire Coverage”

NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon

Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi, “A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola”

BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Award Partner ING

Michael Roddan, The Australian Financial Review, “#AMPToo – sexual harassment at AMP”

FEATURE/PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Award Partner Nikon

Nick Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Firestorm”

TELEVISION/VIDEO: CAMERAWORK
Award Partner Australian Super

Adam Bovino, Today and Nine News, Nine, “George Floyd Protests”

TELEVISION/VIDEO: NEWS REPORTING
Award Partner Seven

Amelia Brace and Tim Myers, Sunrise, Seven News and The Latest, Seven Network, “Beat the Press: Journalism Under Attack”

TELEVISION/VIDEO: CURRENT AFFAIRS SHORT (LESS THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner SBS

Marc Fennell, Ninah Kopel and Joel Stillone, The Feed, SBS, “Stuffed: Inside Australia’s Biggest Museum Heist”

TELEVISION/VIDEO: CURRENT AFFAIRS LONG (MORE THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner TEN

Nick McKenzie, Joel Tozer and Sumeyya Ilanbey, 60 Minutes, Nine, “The Faceless Man”

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Killing Field”

COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE

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”

WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD
Award Partner NSW Government

Sarah Ferguson, Nial Fulton and Tony Jones, ABC and In Films, Revelation

WALKLEY BOOK AWARD

Lucie Morris-Marr, Fallen, Allen & Unwin

NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nikon

Matthew Abbott, The New York Times and Oculi

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO JOURNALISM
Award Partner News Corp Australia

Ross Gittins, The Sydney Morning Herald

GOLD WALKLEY

Mark Willacy and the ABC Investigations-Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC, “Killing Field”

The 2020 Walkley Judging Board:
Chair: Lenore Taylor, editor, Guardian Australia
Deputy Chair: Claire Harvey, editorial director, The Australian
Natalie Ahmat, presenter/producer, NITV News
Michael Bachelard, investigations editor, The Age
Michael Brissenden, reporter, Four Corners, ABC
Patricia Karvelas, presenter, ABC Radio National Drive (abstained from judging in 2020)
Mags King, managing photographic editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review
Deborah Knight, presenter, 2GB
Stella Lauri, network news director, WIN Television
John Lehmann, commercial director and managing editor, The Australian
Hamish Macdonald, host, Q&A, ABC
Mark Mallabone, deputy editor, The West Australian
Heidi Murphy, senior producer, Mornings with Neil Mitchell, 3AW693 (abstained from judging in 2020)
Bhakthi Puvanenthiran, editor, ABC Life
Tory Shepherd, columnist, The Advertiser

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