Edmund Tadros and Neil Chenoweth of The Australian Financial Review were awarded the Gold Walkley, considered by many one of the highest recognitions in Australian journalism, at the 68th Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism in Sydney. The judges acknowledged their investigative work, covering the PwC tax leaks scandal, as the most outstanding journalism of the year, emphasising its powerful and brave reporting that exposed the infiltration of consultants into government operations.
The judges described it as “clearly the most outstanding piece of journalism of the year.”
“This is powerful, important, brave reporting that uncovered the infiltration of consultants into government. This work shows the power of journalism to hold corporations to account,” the official statement reads.
The awards ceremony, presenting honours in 30 categories, recognised Jake Nowakowski as the Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year and Antony Loewenstein for the Walkley Book Award for The Palestine Laboratory (Scribe Publications). The Walkley Documentary Award went to The Dark Emu Story (Blackfella Films / ABC).
Geraldine Doogue AO, Karla Grant, Joanne McCarthy AM, Kate McClymont AM, Colleen Ryan, Marian Wilkinson, Pamela Williams, and Caroline Wilson were acknowledged with the Outstanding Contribution to Journalism award.
This year, the Walkley Judging Board unanimously decided to present Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie with the Walkley Honour for Media Freedom, recognising their Ben Roberts-Smith stories published in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and on Nine/60 Minutes from 2018 to 2023.
The Walkley Foundation’s chief executive, Shona Martyn expressed on the night that the work being honoured was “world class,” attesting that “Australian news consumers are well served by journalists of this calibre.”
The Walkley Foundation has also announced the Masters-McKenzie Grant for Investigative Journalism to support aspiring journalists, with details of this grant to be released in early 2024.
See Also: “I’m proud of my Walkley Award”: Neil Mitchell comments on Walkleys sponsorship debate