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At the Walkley Awards dinner in Sydney last Thursday night, following the presentation of the Gold Walkley Award, the editor-in-chief of Crikey, Peter Fray, heckled the stage and acted in a generally inappropriate manner. The events have been reported already by The Sydney Morning Herald. 

As a result of those actions, Peter is now on indefinite leave from his role. His behaviour was unacceptable and does not reflect the standards we aspire to at our company. I would like to take the opportunity to apologise on behalf of Private Media, which owns Crikey, to journalists Anne Connolly, Ali Russell and Stephanie Zillman, and to the ABC, and congratulate them on their well-deserved win for their original reporting on an important matter.

Peter also released the below statement yesterday:

“I deeply regret my actions at the Walkley Awards and again apologise to the worthy Gold Walkley winners — Anne Connolly, Ali Russell and Stephanie Zillman — attendees on the night, the Walkley foundation’s staff and board members and all staff at Private Media. I will use the period of leave to deeply reflect on my actions and seek appropriate assistance. I can’t undo my actions on that evening, as much as I wish to do so. It was wrong for me to question the veracity and originality of the ABC’s work and the excellence of its journalism. For me to act the way I did was totally unwarranted, inappropriate and out of character.”

Here at Crikey, our journalists aim to hold the powerful to account for their actions and their mistakes, and we expect transparency. So it’s important we do the same when we make mistakes. 

We apologise unconditionally and will try to do better in the future.