News Corp team’s ‘transformative work’ with ‘Let Her Speak’ earns Walkley

Last week, the five women who were most intimately involved with ‘Let Her Speak’ were recognised in the mid-year Walkley Awards.

From left: Journalists Hannah Stenning, Nina Funnell and Kerry Warren at the mid-year Walkley Awards ceremony.

When journalist Nina Funnell set out to campaign for the right of sexual assault survivors to be able to tell their stories under their own names, she was doing so in the knowledge that such a basic privilege had already altered the course of her own life.

“I’m a survivor myself, and I first spoke publicly about it in 2007,” Funnell recalls. “That decision to speak out publicly – under my own name – was life-changing for me.”

In 2017, Funnell met then 22-year-old Grace Tame, who wanted to report the story of her sexual assault under her real name, but was prevented from doing so because of a little-discussed Tasmanian law. Funnell, who was 23 when she herself was assaulted, was struck by the injustice of the law which effectively gagged Grace.

“I just couldn’t believe she wouldn’t have the same options and rights I had at around the same age,” Funnell said.

Funnell was allowed to speak out only because the crime against her was committed in NSW, and the state’s law allowed sexual assault victims such freedom.

And so began a committed pursuit for justice for sexual assault victims across the three Australian jurisdictions where women were not legally entitled to speak about their stories of sexual assault.

Gina McWilliams.

In 2018, Funnell pitched the campaign to her editors at news.com.au, and within a week the Tasmanian attorney-general had agreed to review the relevant law (section 194K of the Evidence Act). Ultimately, the campaign brought about change to the law not just in Tasmania, but in parallel laws in the Northern Territory and Victoria.

Last week, the five women who were most intimately involved with “Let Her Speak” – Funnell, news.com.au’s Kerry Warren (campaign editor) and Hannah Stenning (head of vision), and News Corp’s Gina McWilliams (senior legal counsel) and Georgia-Kate Schubert (government relations), were recognised in the mid-year Walkley Awards, winning the June Andrews Award for Women’s Leadership in Media.

“Let Her Speak is an outstanding entry in an outstanding field,” the judges said. “It led to laws being changed in three jurisdictions, sparked a national conversation about sexual assault … it is courageous, transformative journalism.”

Funnell said she was proud that last week’s award recognised that the campaign was a collaborative effort.

“It was really important to me that the award didn’t just recognise the written stories, it was for the campaign as a whole, which included the legal work and the government relations work that goes into producing law reform,” she said.

“Right from the beginning the goals of the campaign were clear, concise and measurable. There were three jurisdictions that had problematic laws and we could articulate what the problem was and how to fix it, and we did that.

“And we did it through effectively partnering between media outlets, experts in sexual assault and law and the really important group of survivors whose stories were told through the campaign — and that work I’m really proud of.”

Georgia-Kate Schubert

Other campaign partners included Marque Lawyers, End Rape on Campus, and the Rape & Sexual Assault Research & Advocacy Initiative.

The Hobart Mercury, the NT News and the Herald-Sun were also involved in the news.com.au campaign.

Funnell’s book Let Her Speak, will be published by Harper Collins in 2022.

www.letusspeak.com.au