Congratulations to all prize winners at Saturday’s 2009 WA Media Ball & Awards. The West’s Gary Adshead and Sean Cowan won this year’s top award, The Daily News Centenary Prize, and dedicated their win to the late News Ltd political columnist Matt Price, whose work inspired journalists everywhere. West editor Brett McCarthy immediately offered to sponsor a new prize next year to honour Matt’s memory. Full list of winners follows.

2009 Media Awards Winners

Best Newcomer Prize: Jolleh Abshar, Channel 9/A Current Affair
For her respectful and mature treatment of challenging topics. Her first ever television story is exemplary of how to develop a strong current affairs television story about the human spirit while being mindful of ethical concerns. Interviewing traumatised talent is challenging even for experienced journalists and Jolleh’s stories show impressive interviewing and inter-personal skills for a newcomer to the profession.
Highly Commended: Glen Forman, The Sunday Times

Online Reporting Prize: Sharon Kennedy, ABC Southwest
Sharon Kennedy worked alone and created a lot of material. As a result, the ABC’s online coverage of this was the most extensive anywhere on the media. She reported quickly and added depth over time. It was comprehensive coverage with some sensitive moments. The video gave the viewer a very good sense of the situation and personalised the story.

Science Prize: Flip Prior, The West Australian.
Her piece on how caving palaeontologists are using fossil records to consider climate change is packed with information but isn’t heavy and is easily understood by the reader.
Highly commended: David Weber, ABC Radio

Print Graphics Prize: Dean Alston, The West Australian
His Foundation Day cartoon showed settlers and a foreshore plan for Perth, ditched in favour of chopping down a tree. The cartoon is a nice play on the many, many plans that have come and gone.

Sports Prize: Billy Rule, The Sunday Times
A fascinating and revealing insight into the personality and motivating forces driving the West Coast Eagles’ coach. Although regularly in the media spotlight, the former tough defender has let little slip through his guard about his private life or personal reactions to players’ off-field dramas and controversies. Getting the story required Rule taking a gruelling early-morning run with the coach and his amusing account of that is skilfully woven into the structure of the main text.  His well-written feature and news stories raised awareness of how football clubs work and player/coach relations. 
Highly Commended: David de Vos, ABC TV

Business Prize: Andrew Burrell, The Australian Financial Review
An investigative feature on the  dramatic effects of BHP Billiton’s decision to close its Ravensthorpe  nickel mine in January, highlighting the clash of cultures between a global  mining giant and a small WA community. Comprehensive coverage of an issue with  very high local and national interest. Well-writtenand well-researched, based on two days of  on-the-ground interviews in Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe, interviews with BHP  Billiton executives and insider sources. Covered a number of different angles to  the story, within the context of the  community and the company, and tried to explain the causes of the issue  as well as the symptoms.Highly commended: Shane Wright, The West  Australian; Kate Emery, The West Australian.

News Photography Prize: Kerris Berrington, The Sunday Times
A time tested photographers’ dictum is: ‘F8 and be there’.
Kerris was certainly there. When a bloody brawl erupted on the Sunday Times’ doorstep, just outside the Childrens Court, Kerris was capturing the fast moving action in seconds.
Overcoming hurdles such as having to race between windows that were both tinted and dirty, he created a series of images that are confronting and powerful.
Although there were two or three other excellent submissions, the awards jury reached its verdict quickly in the News category, finding in favour of Berrington’s Mayhem at the Court.

Feature Photography Prize: Frances Andrijich, The West Magazine/The West Australian; Karin Calvert-Borshoff, STM/The Sunday Times
The decision here was more difficult, with several serious contenders vying for the gong. Ultimately the judges agreed that the award should be shared.

The co-winners are Frances Andrijich, shooting for the West Magazine for her pictorial on the mean streets of Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Frances was covering the work of a volunteer medical team in the crime and HIV ridden area. The reportage style images are imaginative and brave and encourage repeated viewings.
Sharing the prize is Karin Calvert-Borshoff from STM magazine. Karin’s work with a dying mesothelioma sufferer is extremely compelling, combining sensitivity for her subject with great proficiency in composition and lighting.

Political Reporting Prize: Paul Lampathakis, The Sunday Times
The articles exposed a cover-up involving a bureaucratic bungle in which 1700 people had been illegally kept in jail because they did not pay wrongly charged fees on unpaid fines. One victim was jailed for three months longer than necessary and 14 others for more than 35 days longer than necessary. In total the victims spent an extra 5401 days in jail.

The entrant, acting on a tip-off, revealed that the events occurred between 2001 and 2006 and was known to the previous Labor government in 2006. It was not until January 2007 that the then Attorney-General asked the department concerned to seek advice from the State Solicitor’s Office; and not until August 2008 that the Labor government moved to draft legislation to compensate the victims.

The event also led to the serving Liberal government Attorney-General announcing a plan to keep fine defaulters out of prison by recouping unpaid court fines from defaulters’ social security payments. This position appeared to indicate a reversal of the Liberal party’s position.

The entrant pursued the story from different angles, including by highlighting the gross inadequacy of the initial compensation offer (about $150 a day) leading to an increase to about $250 for each additional day spent in jail.The entrant also overcame official obstacles in his research of the story.

In presenting the story the entrant carried out his research in a thorough and painstaking manner, supporting opinions with adequate factual foundation and useful statistics. Importantly also, the entrant’s labours gave a voice to voiceless victims in the lower socio-economic order.

It is conceivable that the legislation aimed at addressing the debacle – the Fines, Penalties and Infringement Notices Enforcement Amendment Bill 2008, which was passed in May 2009 finally allowing the victims to be compensated – may have been further delayed or left in abeyance, if not for the entrant’s journalistic endeavours.

Print News Prize: Paige Taylor, The Australian
The winner used persistent determination to report on what was happening in a part of Australia that is seldom covered – the Christmas and the Cocos islands. She documented not only the effects of 1300 asylum seekers on the community but uncovered ethnic tensions and some disturbing community practices. The story was followed by both the national and international media and led to the immediate appointment of an administrator for both islands, the lifting of a language ban, potential job creation for Cocos Malays and better working conditions for workers. This was a news story that was well-researched, clearly written and one that led to significant improvements in the community.

Resources Prize: Sean Cowan, The West Australian
Sean’s exclusive story on the true financial situation of Alan Bond’s diamond mine in Lesotho was the result of a tip-off from a business source.  While the tip-off was a lucky break what was impressive about the coverage was the way Sean followed it up meticulously, delving into the entrails of the company,  revealing the money trails, and thus being able to expose the company’s precarious financial state. He did this while already being the subject of defamation action from Alan Bond prompted by other stories.  His willingness to pursue his line of enquiry without fear of intimidation was commendable.

Feature Prize: Steve Pennells, The West Australian
Steve Pennells’ article is a fine example of how true journalism can make a difference to people’s lives. Pennells followed his instincts and pursued a story that had slipped from the headlines and the daily news rounds and discovered that the victims of the Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta in 2004 that Australia had promised to “never forget” had, in four short years, been forgotten. It isn’t enough to find a good story, it must also be told well, and Pennells excelled in that too.

Electronic Feature: Dixie Marshall and Michelle Lord, Channel 9’s A Current Affair
A heart-wrenching story well told – and a good get. Its strength was in giving Ellen Rowe time to tell the story – not filling the silences. Excellent.
Highly commended: Mia Lindgren, ABC Radio National

Health and Medical Feature Prize: Lara Ladyman, The Countryman
It is often case, especially in the Australian bush, suicide and depression are not discussed. These topics are on that list of activities that males shouldn’t engage in, such as crying in public. Ladyman’s feature examines the dark depths of depression as seen through the eyes of a 34 year-old farmer, Marty. It is claimed that we all know someone who is suffering from depression, only we don’t know it. Marty’s story gives readers the tools to know that all is not right with someone they know, to raise the level of debate in the community and to embarrass governments into providing adequate mental health services in rural areas.

Health and Medical News Prize: Paul Lampathakis, The Sunday Times
As if the challenges of life aren’t sufficiently manifest for parents of children with a disability, Paul Lampathakis’ story took us into the world of a loving, law-abiding mother and health professional who was being hunted out of Australia by immigration authorities because she has a Down syndrome child. After six years of doing battle with the Immigration Department and three days after the story had made international headlines, the family’s application for permanent residency was granted.

Consumer Affairs Prize: Sean Cowan and Gary Adshead, The West Australian
A fluke discovery by an internet café owner of a treasure trove of documents on discarded hardware from Firepower Holdings gave Sean Cowan and Gary Adshead a classic journalistic scoop.  By sifting forensically through 9000 documents dating as far back as 2001 they were able to reveal the real story behind the surprise collapse of Firepower six years later.  They demonstrate the kind of persistence, perseverance, and attention to detail that are the hallmark of the best investigative journalism.
Highly Commended  Anthony Deceglie, The Sunday Times

Sub-Editing Prize: David Cusworth, The West Australian
David Cusworth exemplifies par excellence the skill of the headline writer in working within strict space limits to entice the reader in to the story using a repertoire of tricks, including wit, humour, metaphor, alliteration and rhyme. Each of his headlines, while quite different from one another, demonstrates how a highly skilled sub- editor can bring impact to an individual story and contribute to the overall strength of the paper.

Country Prize: Nathan Dyer, Kimberley Echo
Nathan submitted three strong stories, all of which would have been of keen interest to the Kimberley community. He clearly has his finger on the community pulse and has used his contacts to produce good, local, hard news stories of relevance to his readers.

Suburban Prize: Linda Callaghan, POST Newspapers
The judges were impressed with the overall quality of the reporting in her three articles, which scored high on the criteria of newsworthiness, journalistic skill and impact. Two of the articles came from local government but were filled out with considerable further research and interviews. The judges were particularly impressed with the non-council story Mates star in heart-stopping pool drama which was a respectful yet riveting story which  made excellent use of great quotes.
Highly commended: Anita McInnes, The Sound Telegraph; Romy Ranalli, POST Newspapers.

TV Prize: Rochelle Mutton, Channel 9
Rochelle Mutton’s exclusive interview with prison van driver, Nina Stokoe was the interview media outlets had been trying to get for more than a year. Nina Stokoe was one of the drivers of the prison van in which Aboriginal elder, Mr Ward, died on Australia Day, 2008. The interview was compelling viewing. Rochelle allowed Ms Stokoe to tell her story, and the result was emotional and gripping.
Highly commended: John Mort, Channel 9’s A Current Affair.

TV Camera Prize: Gayle Adams, Channel 7/Today Tonight
The item Humpback Highway blends together the best combination of “right time, right place” maturity, and controlled condition experience, in a less than ideal situation. Whilst filming from a small boat in motion is difficult at the best of times, the operator showed an experienced approach to shot selection, composition and exposures, albeit in an otherwise unpredictable environment.

Meanwhile the use of back lighting and reflected light in all of the interviews made welcome improvements to contrast and foreground/background balance, and the scenic landscape images were well rendered. Considering the constraints of nature, time, environment, locations and equipment limitations Gayle has managed to capture striking images of a consistently high quality, all culminating in a beautiful final shot.

Radio Prize: David Weber, ABC Radio; and Geoff Hutchison, ABC 720 Perth
The strength and power of radio were shown in David Weber’s and Geoff Hutchison’s work. David’s AM report had exclusive interviews with two people connected with the death of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward; Geoff’s Morning Show focused on the story of Christian Rossiter. Both were confronting, revealing broadcasting and a credit to broadcast journalism.

Student Prize: Jamie Burnett, WA Academy of Performing Arts For Wild Dogs, Death of the newspaper, Alf Taylor. Jamie’s radio interviews were extremely professional, entertaining, informative and well balanced. Wild Dogs in particular was dramatic, well structured and newsworthy with great use of music and sound effects – without losing its ability to inform. The story of Alf Taylor was compelling and Jamie let Alf’s story unfold while gently guiding the direction of the interview.
Highly commended: Gabrielle Young, Curtin University

A.H. Kornweibel Arts Prize: Nikki Wilson-Smith: ABC TV Stateline
Nikki’s story for Stateline gave an overview of how Perth’s artists and galleries were dealing with the current economic climate and a drop in sales. She took an unusual angle on a newsworthy subject, the global financial crisis and skilfully constructed her story with a range of thoughtful interviews, including arts practitioners and gallery workers. Her interviewees were candid, coherent and interesting. She showed her interview subjects to be both innovative and business focussed which gave the piece impact and kept the overall story on message and of a whole.

Arthur Lovekin Prize: Gary Adshead, The West Australian
Highly commended: Paul Lampathakis, The Sunday Times

Daily News Centenary Prize: Sean Cowan and Gary Adshead, The West Australian
They made a complex, multi-layered consumer affairs story easily understood. Rather than beating-up a simple rip-off tale, it’s the depth of the story and the different players involved that makes this great journalism. It becomes a greater story because of the bizarre side-story of how damning evidence was left on junked computers discovered by a long-haired internet cafe owner- I learnt something new, which is always a bonus in good journalism – how “scuzzies” capture info on computers.