The 68th Walkley Awards took place under the muggy drizzle of yesterday’s late Sydney spring evening at the ICC grand ballroom, and on Australian journalism’s night of nights it was Nine that walked away with the lion’s share of the gongs, taking home more than a third of the regular awards.
The biggest prize of the evening, the Gold Walkley, went to The Australian Financial Review’s Edmund Tadros and Neil Chenoweth for their coverage of the PwC Australia tax leaks scandal. Tadros, in accepting the award, joked that he’d been covering accounting for seven years, and while the scandal had, courtesy of his reporting, made it into the mainstream of public discussion, his beat still doesn’t pique much interest at parties.
However, the men of the hour were two reporters who didn’t have a set award at all. Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie were given the Walkley Honour for Media Freedom, the first of its kind, for their exposure of disgraced former soldier and Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith. A series of stories, six years in the making, that revealed Roberts-Smith’s war crimes in Afghanistan saw Masters, McKenzie and several newspapers sued for defamation by Roberts-Smith, who was backed by the financial might of Seven West chair Kerry Stokes.
Earlier this year, Justice Anthony Besanko of the Federal Court found to a civil standard that Roberts-Smith had committed a series of murders and other offenses as detailed in the reports. Roberts-Smith is appealing the decision.
McKenzie’s and Masters’ vindication was hailed as a rare victory for public interest journalism. For their efforts, alongside the Walkley honour was a grant announced in their names: the Masters-McKenzie Grant for Investigative Journalism, awarding $10,000 to a recipient each year.
The pair received an extended standing ovation from the entire room, bar one notable table. Right in front of them, on table four, sat a table of Seven West employees, who indeed remained “firmly in their seat” in what was described by The Australian Financial Review’s Mark Di Stefano (on the neighbouring table) as “a protest on behalf of [Roberts-Smith]”. The table included Seven News Sydney presenter Michael Usher. One witness told Crikey the table glowered at McKenzie and Masters as they accepted the acknowledgement of the Australian press: “If looks could kill from Usher and co …”
Seven West Media was contacted for comment.
A number of speeches drew attention to the war in Gaza, with MEAA media president and Walkley Foundation deputy chair Karen Percy saying: “We’re in an information war as well as a military one.” Host Patrick Abboud started proceedings calling for thoughts for the now-53 journalists killed in the conflict, and concluded the night calling for a ceasefire.
Eight women were honoured for their outstanding contributions to journalism: the ABC’s Geraldine Doogue, SBS’ Karla Grant, The Newcastle Herald‘s Joanne McCarthy, The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Kate McClymont, former AFR editor Colleen Ryan, the ABC’s Marian Wilkinson, former AFR reporter Pamela Williams, and The Age‘s Caroline Wilson.
Elsewhere, amid a review by the Walkley Foundation of the awards’ sponsorship policy, petroleum company Ampol was notably absent from the sponsor displays. Last year Ampol was the top-tier “platinum” sponsor and name partner (both the Walkley Awards and Ampol were founded by oil baron William Walkley). The awards have been lobbied to divest from Ampol’s sponsorship, with cartoonists calling for a boycott of this year’s awards. Two-time Walkley winner and The Saturday Paper cartoonist Jon Kudelka led the boycott, joined by the AFR‘s David Rowe, Guardian Australia’s First Dog on the Moon, The Age‘s Matt Golding and others. Nine newspapers’ cartoonist Cathy Wilcox called on the Walkleys to commit to divestment from fossil-fuel sponsorship.
A spokesperson for the Walkley Foundation told Crikey: “Ampol requested to have its branding removed from the visual presentation during the Walkley Awards to avoid detracting from the Gold Walkley winners’ big moment.
“The Walkley Foundation honoured all existing contracts with its sponsors for the 68th Walkley Awards. As previously announced, the Walkley board of directors is in the process of reviewing its sponsorship policy for future years which will be announced once completed.”
On the colour of the evening — journalists do our best to scrub up, but the Logies this was not. While a sparkly floral tuxedo jacket was spotted in the crowd, on reflection your correspondent has awarded Crikey’s best dressed to his own date, and will not be taking questions regarding any apparent conflict of interest (in line with much of the industry on trips to Israel).
Dinner came courtesy of International Convention Centre’s executive chef Rakesh Pillai: entrée was a miso-cured king salmon paired with a yuzu marmalade, main was a roast chicken, and dessert was a roasted pineapple and coconut cake.
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