Our writers honoured
15.09.2008
THE Australian has scooped the Queensland Media Awards, with Tony Koch named as Queensland journalist of the year.
Koch, The Australian's chief reporter in Queensland, took out Saturday night's top prize after winning three other major awards.
He and Cairns-based reporter Padraic Murphy won the award for best print news report for their exclusive expose on how three men and six youths escaped jail sentences after gang raping a 10-year-old girl in Aurukun, on Cape York.
Koch's commentary on the case also won him the all media category for best comment, analysis, opinion and critique.
He was also a winner of the all media category for social justice/indigenous reporting. He won the award for his series exposing that the state Government had ignored warnings about security for frontline health staff in the years leading up to the rape of a nurse in the Torres Strait.
The Australian's Freedom of Information editor, Brisbane-based Sean Parnell, won the all media category for best sports report for his exclusive series into the challenges posed by drugs and new technology in elite-level sport.
John Anderson, a veteran reporter for the Townsville Bulletin, won the peer-nominated award for most outstanding contribution to journalism.
