Walkley Awards 2021: Mid-Year finalists

Lisa Wilkinson, Marc Fennell, Tom Joyner and Jason Om are amongst finalists in the eWalkley Foundation’s Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism.

Here are TV names announced this week:

Longform feature or special

• Mridula Amin, Background Briefing, ABC Radio National, “The hidden park of last resort”
• Luke Henriques-Gomes, Guardian Australia, “’It was life or death’: the plane-hijacking refugees Australia embraced”
• Patrick Martin, 7pm News South Australia, ABC TV, “Expenses scandal: South Australian MP refuses to answer questions over travel expenses”

Visual storytelling

• Mridula Amin, ABC News and National Geographic, “The hidden park of last resort” “Resettled” and “Armin Wahidi”
• Tom Joyner, ABC 7.30, “Melbourne’s Second Wave”
• Rebecca Metcalf and David Ma, SBS, “Amongst the embers: Six months on from the bushfires”

Public service journalism

• Brooke Fryer, The Feed, SBS, “Queensland crime wave: hardened criminals or misunderstood kids?” and “Troubled Teens: How a Queensland community is tackling youth crime”
• Annabel Hennessy, The West Australian and The Sunday Times, “11-year-old Indigenous girl takes her own life after her alleged rapist is given bail” “Annaliesse Ugle: How housing insecurity and a lack of support contributed to 11-year-old girl’s despair” and “State Government proposes changes to bail laws to look after child sex victims after death of Annaliesse Ugle”
• Amber Schultz, Crikey, “Neglected to death: David Harris’ life reveals awful treatment of the mentally ill,” “Georgi Hadden used to protect us. When she needed it, we didn’t protect her,” and “‘People are bursting into tears’: inside the troubled NDIS watchdog”

Our Watch Award

• Avani Dias, Angela McCormack, Ali Russell and Laura McAuliffe, Four Corners, Triple J Hack and ABC Online, “Tinder: A Predators’ Playground”
• Samantha Maiden, news.com.au, “Young staffer Brittany Higgins says she was raped at Parliament House” “Parliament office ‘steam cleaned’ after alleged attack” and “Minister Michaelia Cash’s voicemail message to Brittany Higgins”
• Lisa Wilkinson, Angus Llewellyn and Georgia Done, The Project and The Sunday Project, Network 10, “Brittany Higgins interview”, “Brittany Higgins editorial” and “A Matter of Consent”

Humanitarian Storytelling Award

• Beau Donelly and Christopher Hopkins, Al Jazeera, “’It takes a village to kill a child’: Uganda’s hidden children”
• Andrew Quilty, The Monthly and The Intercept, “The Worst Form of Defence: New revelations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan” and “The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads”
• Tracey Shelton, Jarrod Fankhauser and Alan Weedon, ABC, “A decade lost”

Media Diversity Australia Award

• Rebecca Armstrong, Angela Leonardi, Quentin McDermott and Helen Grasswill, Australian Story, ABC, “About a boy”
• Marc Fennell, Agnes Teek, Josh McAtamney and Georgina Davies, SBS Dateline, “Born Small”
• Jason Om, Alex McDonald and Ake Prihantari, 7.30, ABC, “Price of Convenience” and “Hungry Panda food delivery company under fire from workers”

Winners  will be announced on June 16.