Adele Ferguson NSW journalist of the year as CBA investigation dominates Kennedy Awards
Fairfax Media’s Adele Ferguson was named New South Wales journalist of the year at Friday night’s Kennedy Awards for excellence in NSW journalism.
Ferguson’s work was recognised for exposing problems at the Commonwealth Bank where financial planners were in a “boiler room” culture and failed to provide responsible planning advice to customers. A later joint investigation between Fairfax and the ABC’s Four Corners led to calls for a Senate Inquiry into how the failures were allowed to occur.
The joint Four Corners investigation “Banking Bad” swept the awards, winning the categories for outstanding television current affairs reporting, outstanding finance reporting, outstanding investigative reporting, plus Ferguson being recognised with the top gong of the awards, which honour the late crime reporter Les Kennedy.
The ABC’s Four Corners program also won in the categories of outstanding consumer affairs reporting and the Les Kennedy Award for outstanding crime reporting.
Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph performed well in many of the key categories, such as Scoop of the Year with Miranda Devine and Mark Morri being recognised for revealing that former detective Roger Rogerson was wanted by police over the murder of student Jamie Gao. The newspaper also won the outstanding political reporting, outstanding court reporting category, outstanding news photography and outstanding sports photography categories.
The event also saw the local edition of The Guardian do well, winning three awards in the categories of outstanding online news breaking to journalist Oliver Laughland, while contributor Paul Daley won the John Newfong outstanding indigenous reporting award, and outstanding columnist of the year.
In television, Seven News won the Harry Potter Award for outstanding television news reporting for its series of reports into the Australian Defence Force’s so-called ‘Knights of the Jedi Council’ sex ring and alleged cover-up. The network’s Paul Walker also won the Gary Ticehurst award for outstanding news camera coverage.
Radio 2GB’s Natalie Peters won the category for outstanding radio reporting, while outstanding radio commentator went to Radio 2UE breakfast host John Stanley.
The Australian’s Trent Dalton won the Jim Oram Award for feature writing and Greg Bearup won outstanding turf reporting while SBS’s Joel Tozer won NSW young journalist of the year.
Full list of winners
1. LES KENNEDY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CRIME REPORTING
Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Deb Masters and Mary Fallon, Four Corners, ABC
2. PAUL LOCKYER AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING REGIONAL BROADCAST REPORTING Sponsored by the ABC
Amy Phillips, Prime7 News, Lismore
3. CHRIS WATSON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING REGIONAL NEWSPAPER REPORTING
Robert Dillon, The Newcastle Herald
4. OUTSTANDING TURF REPORTING
Greg Bearup, The Australian
5. ROD ALLEN AWARD FOR NSW RACING WRITER OF THE YEAR
Christian Nicolussi
6. SEAN FLANNERY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING RADIO REPORTING
Natalie Peters, 2GB
7. OUTSTANDING RADIO CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORTING
Sarah Dingle, ABC Radio National
8. OUTSTANDING RADIO COMMENTATOR
John Stanley, 2UE
9. OUTSTANDING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Craig Greenhill, The Daily Telegraph
10. OUTSTANDING PORTRAIT
Addison Hamilton, The Daily Advertiser, Wagga Wagga
11. OUTSTANDING ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Janie Barrett, The Sydney Morning Herald
12. OUTSTANDING ONLINE VIDEO
Tony Walters, The Sydney Morning Herald
13. OUTSTANDING SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Philip Hillyard, The Daily Telegraph
14. CLIFF NEVILLE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TEAM PLAYER AND MENTOR
Wes Hardman, Nine News
15. OUTSTANDING SPORTS REPORTING
Robert Dillon, The Newcastle Herald
16. OUTSTANDING TRAVEL WRITING
Sue Wallace, The Border Mail
17. NSW YOUNG JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Joel Tozer, The Feed, SBS
18. JOHN NEWFONG AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS REPORTING Sponsored By Coles
Paul Daley, The Guardian
19. GARY TICEHURST AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING NEWS CAMERA COVERAGE Sponsored by Nine News
Paul Walker, 7News
20. HARRY POTTER AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TELEVISION NEWS REPORTING
Paula Doneman, Robert Ovadia, Tony Fox, and Duncan Farr, 7News
21. OUTSTANDING TELEVISION CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORTING
Mario Christodoulou, Adele Ferguson, and Deb Masters, Four Corners, ABC
22. PETER RUEHL AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING COLUMNIST
Paul Daley, The Guardian
23. OUTSTANDING FINANCE REPORTING
Mario Christodoulou, Adele Ferguson, and Deb Masters, Four Corners, Fairfax
24. OUTSTANDING CONSUMER AFFAIRS REPORTING
Mario Christodoulou, Janine Cohen, and Linton Besser, Four Corners, ABC
25. OUTSTANDING ONLINE NEWS BREAKING
Oliver Laughland, The Guardian
26. OUTSTANDING COURT REPORTING
Janet Fife-Yeomans, The Daily Telegraph
27. OUTSTANDING REPORTING ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Natalie O’Brien, The Sun-Herald
28. SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Miranda Devine and Mark Morri, The Daily Telegraph
29. OUTSTANDING ILLUSTRATION OR CARTOON
Simon Bosch, The Sydney Morning Herald
30. OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
Adele Ferguson, Four Corners, ABC
31. JIM ORAM AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING FEATURE WRITING
Trent Dalton, The Australian
32. OUTSTANDING POLITICAL REPORTING
Andrew Clennell, The Daily Telegraph
33. KENNEDY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Phil Cornford
34. NEW SOUTH WALES JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Adele Ferguson, Fairfax, ABC
Agree, Commonwealth Bank fraud scandal was a clear winner
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