Greyhound expose wins top honour at Walkleys
The Four Corners investigation into animal cruelty within Australia’s greyhound racing industry has won the top prize at Australia’s major journalism awards, the Walkleys.
The ABC team of Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Sam Clark and Max Murch won the Gold Walkley Award for “Making a Killing” which examined the illegal practice of live baiting.
The Walkley judges said: “’Making a Killing’ exposes greyhound racing’s ugly secret. It took bravery, tenacity and months of planning in three states to produce a jaw-dropping report that has shaken not just the greyhound code but the entire racing industry.”
While “Making a Killing” picked up the investigative journalism Walkley and the Gold Walkley, it did not win in the sports journalism category, losing out to Chris Garry’s reports on the suicide deaths of five young men who held NRL contracts “When a Game Becomes Life and Death”.
Media personality Derryn Hinch noted the fact in a series of Tweets during the awards ceremony, calling out the sports judges for not recognising the Greyhounds story.
The Walkleys, in their 60th year, were presented at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne.
The winners:
PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT
Michael Bachelard and Armando Cordoba, The Age, “The White Jihadist”
SOCIAL EQUITY JOURNALISM
Margaret Simons and Dave Tacon, The Monthly, “Fallen Angels: The children left behind by Australian sex tourists”
MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING
Huw Parkinson, Insiders, ABC TV, “Bronwyn Bishop’s Arrested Development”, “Star Wars: Fixed” and “The Breakfast Clubbing Season”
NIKON-WALKLEY PHOTO OF THE YEAR
Gary Ramage, News Corp Australia, “Ice Nation”
HEADLINE JOURNALISM
Sean Keeley, The Courier-Mail, “Jihad me at hello”, “Fillip for republicans” and “Voyage of the crammed”
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Stan Grant, Guardian Australia, “Stan Grant Columns”
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Emma Field, The Weekly Times, “Foreign worker exploitation exposed”
SPORTS JOURNALISM
Chris Garry, Sunday Mail and The Courier-Mail, “When a Game Becomes Life and Death”
SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
Phil Hillyard, The Daily Telegraph, “One Moment in Time”
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS JOURNALISM
Mark Willacy and Mark Solomons, PM, ABC Radio, “Hopeland”
RADIO/AUDIO DOCUMENTARY, FEATURE, PODCAST OR SPECIAL
Hagar Cohen, Background Briefing, ABC Radio National, “Left in Harm’s Way”
PRINT/TEXT FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
David Kilcullen, Quarterly Essay No. 58, “Blood Year: Terror and the Islamic State”
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Annika Smethurst, Herald Sun, “Bronwyn Bishop’s Chopper Scandal”
CARTOON
David Pope, The Canberra Times, “Charlie Hebdo”
ARTWORK
Safdar Ahmed, GetUp! – The Shipping News, “Villawood: Notes from an Immigration Detention Centre”
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
Seven News Team, Seven News, “Lindt Cafe Siege”
PRINT/TEXT FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Trent Dalton, The Weekend Australian Magazine, “The Ghosts of Murray Street”
NIKON-WALKLEY NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Rob Griffith, The Associated Press, “Sydney Lindt Cafe Siege”
BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Adele Ferguson, Sarah Danckert and Klaus Toft, Fairfax Media and Four Corners, ABC TV, “7-Eleven: The Price of Convenience”
NIKON-WALKLEY FEATURE/ PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Ingetje Tadros, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Kennedy Hill”
INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM
Jewel Topsfield, Sarah Whyte, David Wroe, Amilia Rosa and Karuni Rompies, Fairfax Media, “People Smuggler Cash Payments”
CAMERAWORK
Louie Eroglu, ABC News and Four Corners, ABC TV, “The Killing Season” and “The Great Cricket Coup”
TV/AV NEWS REPORTING
Chris Reason, Seven News, Seven Network, “Lindt Cafe Siege”
TV/AV DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS
Matt Brown, Suzanne Dredge and Mathew Marsic, 7.30, ABC TV, “Enslaved by Aussie Jihadis”
TV/AV WEEKLY CURRENT AFFAIRS
Tara Brown and Rebecca Le Tourneau, 60 Minutes, Nine Network, “Catching a Monster”
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Sam Clark and Max Murch, Four Corners, ABC TV, “Making a Killing”
INTERVIEW
David Speers, Sky News Australia, “The Fixer”
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
Peter Hartcher, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Come and get me”, “PM rolled by his own ministers” and “Abbott’s gamble with no safety net”
WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD
Michael Ware, Justine A. Rosenthal, Patrick McDonald, Bill Guttentag and Jane Moran, Only The Dead, Penance Films and Wolfhound Pictures
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD
Chip Le Grand, The Straight Dope, Melbourne University Press
NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Gary Ramage, News Corp Australia
JOURNALISTIC LEADERSHIP
Debi Marshall
MOST OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO JOURNALISM
Trevor Sykes
GOLD WALKLEY
Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Sam Clark and Max Murch, Four Corners, ABC TV, “Making a Killing”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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It would be nice to know if “Making a Killing” was entered into the sports story section. If it was not then it was not overlooked.
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