Advertiser journalists win at 2024 South Australian Media Awards

Two Advertiser journalists have been crowned winners at the 2024 South Australian Media Awards. Find out who here.

Riley Walter, with Tia Ewen, Monique Van Der Heyden and Evangeline Polymene, joined The Advertiser in 2022. Picture Simon Cross

The Advertiser court reporter Isabel “Izzy” McMillan has received the Max Fatchen Award for Best Young Journalist at the 2024 South Australian Media Awards.

Judges said the three stories McMillan submitted were “excellent but diverse” showing her versatility.

“McMillan’s story on the CFS required her to build trust with her subjects, while reporting on a detainee charged with indecent assault needed tough news chasing skills. Then McMillan showed a different dimension to her journalism, with an entertaining read on the state’s only female drift club,” they said.

Isabel McMillan. Picture: Emma Brasier

Riley Walter. Picture: Simon Cross

The Advertiser police reporter Riley Walter received the Investigative Journalism award for his Child Protection Failures series.

“The entry stood out for its use of primary sources and official documents to throw light on an issue which has plagued child-protection regimes across Australia for decades,” judges said, adding: “Through his reporting Walter humanised the issue by giving a voice to victims and taking the reader inside the horror of a child protection system that has failed so badly. It was a well reported, researched and accessible series which forced the government to respond.”

State correspondent for SBS World News and NITV Peta Doherty was named the 2024 South Australian Journalist of the Year for her multiplatform story on an Adelaide housing development Riverlea built on one of the state’s largest mass burial sites.

“The entry exposed an important matter of public interest in a sensitive and culturally-appropriate way,” the judges said.

Doherty also won the awards for Text Format News Report, Television/Video News Reporting, and Social Equity Report.

The awards, sponsored by the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance were announced at Gallery Adelaide.

Originally published as Advertiser journalists win at 2024 South Australian Media Awards