Melbourne Press Club’s Quill Awards – ABC journalists and teams have won the Gold Quill and eight other awards and were highly commended in five more categories at the Melbourne Press Club’s 28th Quill Awards for Excellence in Victorian Journalism.
Bridget Brennan, Suzanne Dredge, Brooke Fryer and Stephanie Zillman were awarded the top honour for ‘How Many More?’, which explored the crisis of the nation’s missing and murdered First Nations women.
The Four Corners report also won the Quill for Excellence in Indigenous Affairs Reporting.
Brennan, Dredge and Fryer broke new ground as the first female Indigenous reporting team to report a Four Corners.
The citation said:
“The judges were deeply moved and impressed by the depth of research, access to strong Aboriginal women and sensitivity of the story telling about a troubling crisis of our time.
“’How Many More?’ placed the horrific reality of femicide being experienced by Aboriginal women into the national spotlight by putting faces to the names of more than 300 women who have gone missing, been murdered or killed since 2000.
“The meticulous research, months of interviews and powerful storytelling led to a national conversation and changes in the way domestic violence prevention and treatment is handled.”
ABC journalists and teams also won for best Business News/Feature, Coverage of Women in Sport, Feature Writing, Multicultural Affairs and Media, Radio News, Radio Current Affairs and TV/Video Feature.
Former ABC Melbourne radio broadcaster Jon Faine was recognised with the MPC Lifetime Achievement Award.
Full list of ABC finalists and winners
THE GOLD QUILL
Winner Awarded to Bridget Brennan, Brooke Fryer, Suzanne Dredge and Stephanie Zillman, Four Corners, ABC News for “How Many More?”
BEST COVERAGE OF AN ISSUE
Highly commended Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett, The Age and 7.30, “Medicare Exposed”
BUSINESS NEWS/FEATURE
Winner Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett, The Age and 7.30, “Medicare: A Basket Case”
COVERAGE OF WOMEN IN SPORT
Winner Jeremy Story Carter, ABC National Regional Reporting Team, “Is this Australia’s coolest footy team?”
EXCELLENCE IN INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS REPORTING
Winner Bridget Brennan, Brooke Fryer, Suzanne Dredge and Stephanie Zillman, Four Corners, ABC News, “How Many More?”
Loretta Florance, Amy Bainbridge and Kirstie Wellauer, 7.30, “Inside Youpla’s collapse”
Highly commended Louise Milligan, Naomi Selvaratnam and Lauren Day, Four Corners, “Heart Failure”
FEATURE WRITING
Winner Erin Somerville, ABC News, “Raising Giants”
GRANT HATTAM QUILL FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
Highly commended Josie Taylor and Matilda Marozzi, ABC News, “Victoria Police officers weaponising database to target women”
MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS AND MEDIA
Winner Achol Arok and Daniel Ziffer, ABC News, “So-called ‘African gangs’ dominated headlines at the last Victorian election and trust issues remain”
Iris Zhao, Dong Xing, Jason Fang and Jarrod Fankhauser, ABC News, “‘It’s a struggle for voters’: Unpacking the China factor”
RADIO NEWS
Winner Matilda Marozzi, ABC New “Robyn died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. Her family speaks for the first time.’’
RADIO CURRENT AFFAIRS
Winner Amy Bainbridge, Loretta Florance and Kirstie Wellauer, ABC AM, “Sorry Business”
Highly commended Matilda Marozzi and the Background Briefing team, ABC Radio National, “Is getting quality care at medicinal cannabis clinics just pot luck?”
REPORTING ON DISABILITY ISSUES
Highly commended Claudia Forsberg, ABC Victoria and ABC Ballarat, “Accessible Taxis Reportage”
TV CAMERA WORK (CREATIVE)
Peter Drought, ABC News Victoria, “Fight for The Outer Suburbs in Victoria’s Election”
TV CAMERA WORK (SHOT OF THE YEAR)
Simon Tucci, ABC News Breakfast, “Journalist celebrates when Socceroos qualify for World Cup”
TV/VIDEO FEATURE
Winner Richard Willingham, Kirsten Robb and Sarah Curnow, 7.30, “Victims of sexual violence forced to wait in bloodied and soiled clothes due to crisis in Forensic Care”
TV/VIDEO NEWS
Bridget Rollason, ABC News, “Victoria’s health crisis”
YOUNG JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Claudia Forsberg, ABC News and ABC Ballarat
THE MPC LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Awarded to Jon Faine AM, former ABC Melbourne radio broadcaster, for his decades-long career spent setting the daily news agenda, holding the powerful to account and telling our stories.
GRAHAM PERKIN AUSTRALIAN JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Adele Ferguson from Nine Newspapers was also shortlisted for the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year for her investigation of fraud and misconduct in the health sector, which included two stories done for ABC 7.30 (‘Expert estimates $8 billion a year lost to Medicare fraud and waste‘; ‘Should the Medicare system be overhauled?‘).
Media Release – ABC
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