2002 Finalists Announced In The Walkley Awards
by Ian McPherson

The Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism is Australia's version of the renowned Pulitzer Prizes. Established in 1956 by Ampol Petroleum patriarch Sir William Walkley, who felt to repay the Australian media's support for his company's oil exploration efforts, the Awards are now overseen by the Walkley Foundation for Journalism.

Now in its 47th year, the Walkleys feature over 33 categories and focus on print, television, radio and online journalism. Up for grabs are the "most outstanding contribution to journalism" and "journalism leadership" awards, plus the highly coveted Gold Walkley.

The Walkley finalists have recently been announced, and the winners will be announced at a Gala Ceremony in late November. Finalists include many media "heavies" and the list reads like the "who's who" of Australian media.

As always, the Sydney Morning Herald, a broadsheet daily newspaper, is well represented in the print categories, although the Australian and the Weekend Australian also had good showings, along with The Age in Melbourne. In the radio categories, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) led the way, as it did last year, with hardly a look in from the commercial networks. In the TV categories, both the ABC, SBS and the commercial networks (channels 7, 9 and 10) are well represented.

The online journalism category should be interesting. Pitted against the traditional media, in this case the Australian Financial Review and the ABC, cheeky and irreverent outsider crikey.com.au looks set for a chance at a gong. Naturally enough, the site was nominated for its involvement in the leaking of e-mails on the infighting amongst the Australian Democrats, leading to the resignation of Democrats leader, Natasha Stott Despoja, Senator for South Australia.

Unfortunately, because most media operators now charge for access to older articles, the only online finalist you can check out for free is the crikey.com.au article. Check it out here. You will find the official Walkley Awards website here. Check out the Finalists here.

Cryptic messages on New Zealand and Australian Internet Awards sites

Having skipped last year, the Australian Internet Awards appear to be still in jeopardy. Although the real details are unavailable, the downturn in the Australian IT market may be to blame. Although the site is still up, and it features a "back soon with a big announcement" message, it has been this way for many months.

Another cryptic message greets visitors to the New Zealand Internet awards website, "Coming back in October, 2002!". The word from my contacts in NZ is that these guys will return soon, even though October is nearly over. Let's hope so, for all Web Award fans.

Hopefully, both the Australian and New Zealand Internet Awards will return in 2002. At this point in time, I hold out more hope for the New Zealand event, as there has been little news from the organizers of the Australian event, who seem to have gone "bush". If I receive any more news on either of these events, you will read it here.

See you all in the next issue! 

Ian McPherson
DownUnder Editor