News Awards: Time to shine for The Australian’s top talents
The Australian’s investigations writer Sharri Markson has won the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for her groundbreaking reporting on the origins of Covid-19.
The Australian’s investigations writer Sharri Markson has won News Corp’s most prestigious journalism accolade, the Sir Keith Murdoch Award, for her groundbreaking reporting on the origins of Covid-19.
Markson wrote a series of investigative articles on links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and how the pandemic started, and in September her critically acclaimed debut book, What Really Happened in Wuhan, was published.
She also made a documentary for Sky News that focused on cover-ups by Chinese authorities in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. The documentary, which featured an exclusive interview with Donald Trump, was the highest-rating Sky News program of 2021.
News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch said Markson’s relentless pursuit of the truth regarding the origins of Covid-19 was reflective of the company’s commitment to the community’s “right to question, and to know”.
“As Australia, and indeed the world, continues to witness the censorship of free speech and other grave threats to democracies from unchecked social media platforms, our commitment to journalism and the marketplace of ideas is more important than ever,” Mr Murdoch said.
He praised Markson’s work for making a “hugely important contribution” to journalism in Australia and across the world.
Markson, 37, who also won the Sir Keith Murdoch Award in 2018, said she was honoured. “The journalism that we do at News Corp is so important, and that has been recognised tonight. We should all be proud of it, and we should never allow ourselves to be defined by our critics.”
Markson won two other News Awards on Wednesday night – for achievements in storytelling, and achievements in sports journalism, the latter shared with The Australian’s chief sports reporter, Jessica Halloran, and the newspaper’s editorial director, Claire Harvey.
They were recognised for their investigations into the alleged cover-up of drug abuse at the NRL’s South Sydney Rabbitohs, and the alleged violent off-field behaviour by one of the club’s star players. The Australian’s John Stensholt won the Keith McDonald Award (business journalist of the year) for the second year running. Johannes Leak, The Australian’s cartoonist, won the award named in honour of his late father, Bill Leak, which recognises the best cartoonist at News Corp each year.
Sub-editor on The Australian, Simon Firth, won the award for headline of the year.
Peta Credlin, a columnist with The Australian, was recognised for her achievements in specialist journalism, for her coverage on Sky News of the Victorian government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
In a virtual address to the online awards night, News Corp’s global chief executive, Robert Thomson, said: “Our journalistic vocation – our calling – is to question, to critique, to challenge.
“We believe in the contest of ideas and not in the conquest of ideology.
“Your role as journalists has rarely been more important.”
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said the company’s journalism had “reached new levels” in 2021. “We commend the clever and the bold, we applaud the risk-takers, and we celebrate and recognise journalistic excellence,” he said.
Scoop of the year was awarded to news.com.au’s Samantha Maiden for her coverage of the alleged rape of former political staffer Brittany Higgins.
News Corp’s national executive editor Peter Blunden and Fox Sports executive director Steve Crawley were recognised for their distinguished careers at the company, with both receiving Chairman’s Awards.
The Saturday Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail were recognised as News Corp’s “brand of the year”.
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