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Friday, October 19, 2012

Walkley Award finalists know their FOI

Among the Walkley Award for Journalism 2012 finalists are names familiar to many in government who deal with access to information requests. Congratulations to all who made the list, especially:

Print News Report
 

Hedley Thomas, The Australian, “What the floods inquiry didn’t hear: Wivenhoe ‘breached the manual’”

Sustained Coverage of an Issue or Event
Commended: Linton Besser, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Fraud probe snares top bureaucrats"

Business Journalism
Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker, 7.30, ABC TV and The Age, Fairfax, “RBA faces questions over bribery connections”
(Comment: McKenzie and Baker have been on the Securency story since 2009, when they revealed that a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank had paid million-dollar commissions to win global banknote contracts, overcoming FOI obstacles like this along the way.  They won the Walkley for Investigative Journalism last year. The RBA stories are still running in 2012 having led to criminal charges and forced a parliamentary inquiry. They are also finalists this year for best Scoop of the Year, “Church’s suicide victims” and McKenzie for Newspaper Feature Writing for “Why did Abraham Papo die?”)

Investigative Journalism
Linton Besser and Kate McClymont, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “Exposed: Obeids’ secret harbour deal” 

Commended: Sharona Coutts, Joel Tozer, Clare Blumer, Adam Glyde and Paul Farrell, The Global Mail, “Patients at risk”

Best Digital Journalism Category
Stuart Washington, Tom Allard, Conrad Walters and UTS Team, smh.com.au, “Sky’s the limit on political gifts”
(Comment: Don't ring Senator Faulkner for a soundbite.)

Commended: Sharona Coutts, Joel Tozer, Clare Blumer, Adam Glyde and Paul Farrell, The Global Mail, “Failing the aged: a multi-billion dollar mess”

Television News reporting
Sharri Markson, Lee Jeloscek, Adam Walters and Michael McKinnon, Seven News, Seven Network, “The cabinet leak”

Let me know of others that I may have missed who plied the FOI/RTI/GIPA trade to make the finals.

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