The finalists for the 2023 Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism, a much-anticipated event organised by the Walkley Foundation, have been announced.
The awards ceremony will also reveal the recipients of the Jacoby-Walkley Scholarship with Nine, the WIN News Broadcast Scholarship, the Walkley Young Indigenous Scholarship, the inaugural Esme Fenston Fellowship, and the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism.
Walkley Foundation Chief Executive, Shona Martyn, expressed her excitement over the tight competition and the variety of entries this year.
“The judging sessions extended as the panel evaluated the exceptional entries in highly competitive categories. The selection as a finalist is an achievement to take pride in. The entrants’ range was pleasing, with journalists from across Australia, representing both major and smaller news organisations, submitting high-quality stories on diverse topics.”
The John B Fairfax Family Young Journalist of the Year awards were a testament to the abundance of early career talent in Australia. Martyn commended the young reporters for their determination, commitment, and journalistic excellence, saying, “They are the future of Australian journalism. Their resilience and the vigour of our freelancers shone through.”
Winners will be chosen based on overall merit and journalistic excellence, and all awards will be announced at the Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism in Sydney on June 15.
A number of awards were dedicated to TV and related categories, including Shortform Journalism, Longform Feature or Special, Coverage of Community and Regional Affairs, Visual Storytelling, Public Service Journalism, the June Andrews Award for Freelance Journalist of the Year, the Our Watch Award, Humanitarian Storytelling Award, Media Diversity Australia Award, and the June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism.
Notable finalists include Fleur Connick, Claudia Farhart, Paul Sakkal, Xanthe Gregory, Joey Watson, Daryna Zadvirna, Melissa Mackay, Hannah Walsh, Rhiona-Jade Armont, Julian Fell, Brooke Fryer, Lydia Lynch, Liam Mendes, Patrick Abboud, Caroline Winter, Nina Funnell, Alexis Daish, Melissa Fyfe, Jacqueline Maley, Richard Willingham, Matthew Davis, Peter O’Donoghue, Tom Joyner, Ben Lewis, Colin Cosier, Josh McAtamney, Dan Bourchier, Hagar Cohen, Raveen Hunjan, Jessica Horner, Nicole Mills, Gabriella Coslovich, Marc Fennell, Anna Verney, and Richard Cooke.
The shortlist showcases a wide range of talent and topics, from coverage of rural water quality investigations and the 2023 Türkiye-Syria Earthquakes in shortform journalism, to exploration of Australia’s secretive torture survival course for elite soldiers and the Eugowra flood disaster in longform features. The entries also tackle vital social issues, from unsolved cases of First Nations women to the looming famine in Somalia, demonstrating the depth and breadth of Australian journalism.