The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes joint investigation into Crown Casino has won the Business Journalism category at the 64th annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

Nine won a total of four Walkleys at the award presentation last night at the ICC Ballroom in Sydney.

“Crown Unmasked” was a six-month joint investigation by the Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes which exposed a corporate scandal unlike anything Australia had ever seen before.

Investigative reporters Nick McKenzie, Nick Toscano and producer Grace Tobin obtained tens of thousands of documents and internal files from Crown, Australia’s largest casino operator. It was one of the biggest leaks of information to the media in this country’s history and explained what was going on inside the business in the lead-up to Crown’s darkest hour: the arrest and imprisonment of 19 employees for breaking strict gambling laws in China.

Michael Koziol and Jennifer Duke from The Sydney Morning Herald won the Print/Text news report category for their work on the fall of ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie, and Michael Barnes of The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend magazine won the Feature Writing Short award (under 4000 words) for his piece, “Counting down the days in God’s waiting room”.

The Sun-Herald’s Malcolm Knox and Nigel Gladstone won the Sports Journalism category for “Caught Out: Cricket’s Inflated Player Numbers Revealed”.

James Chessell, Executive Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, said: “We’re very proud of the Herald and Age newsrooms whose excellent work was recognised by the Walkleys last night. To be even nominated is an achievement, and to have our first joint investigation with 60 Minutes recognised demonstrates the strength of our teams coming together to investigate important stories. It was an excellent night celebrating quality journalism across the media industry.”

Darren Wick, Nine National Director of News and Current Affairs, said: “Congratulations to the 60 Minutes team whose outstanding work was recognised by the Walkley Awards. It is an honour to be nominated and we’re proud that Nine’s quality journalism has been acknowledged by the Walkleys – and it is even more special to have our first joint-investigation with the Herald and The Age recognised, it highlights the real opportunity we have to work together in the public interest. Thank you to our fabulous teams for their consistently superb work.”

Nine’s winners include:

• PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT: Michael Koziol and Jennifer Duke, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Guthrie ordered to sack top ABC reporter”, “ABC chair’s ‘bias’ email” and “Revealed: ABC boss’ secret dossier”
• FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS): Michael Barnes, Good Weekend, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Counting down the days in God’s waiting room”
• SPORTS JOURNALISM: Malcolm Knox and Nigel Gladstone, The Sun-Herald, “Caught Out: Cricket’s Inflated Player Numbers Revealed”
• BUSINESS JOURNALISM: Nick McKenzie, Nick Toscano and Grace Tobin, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes, Nine, “Crown Unmasked”

For more information:
Miranda Ward
Communications Manager
miward@nine.com.au

Friday, November 29, 2019