Three Clarion awards for stories on Andrew Laming rescinded

Three media awards have been annulled in the biggest stripping of media honours in the profession’s history for false reports on former Liberal MP Andrew Laming.

Channel 9 journalist Peter Fegan who won three Clarion awards in 2021 for stories about Liberal MP Andrew Laming. The awards have since been withdrawn.

Three journalism awards have been stripped from reporters in one of the biggest reversals of media honours in the profession’s history.

The awards were given at Queensland’s state-based Clarion Awards in 2021 for reports on alleged misconduct by former federal Liberal MP Andrew Laming.

The board of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance announced on Monday they had agreed to withdraw three awards including for the best broadcast interview, TV news report and journalist of the year.

Reports by Nine Queensland’s Peter Fegan and Rebeka Powell included false claims Dr Laming upskirted a woman and it won them three 2021 Clarion Awards.

In a statement published by the MEAA it said: “The board of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has resolved to withdraw three Clarion awards that were issued for coverage of Dr Andrew Laming in March 2021.

Channel 9 journalist Peter Fegan who posted on Instagram after he won three Clarion awards in 2021 for stories about Liberal MP Andrew Laming.

“MEAA’s Board acted on the advice of a panel comprising of journalist members.

“The action follows the decision by the Walkley Awards to withdraw an award for the same subject matter in November last year.

“MEAA has taken steps to advise the parties affected by this decision of the outcome of the review process.”

No substitute awards will be given and an MEAA spokesman said the union will not be seeking the return of the awards.

Posts on the Clarions’ official Twitter account congratulating Fegan and Powell for their three awards remained online on Tuesday but have now been deleted.

Fegan’s Twitter bio description read: “3x Clarions award winner, Walkley Award Winner”.

This was changed on Tuesday to remove the references to the awards.

The pair also still have social media posts on their Instagram accounts from the Clarions event holding their awards.

Dr Laming said he was pleased the awards had been withdrawn.

“I was pleased to receive notice last night that the Media Entertainment Arts Alliance board has finally resolved to withdraw the three Clarion Awards for broadcasts about me by the Nine Network in 2021,” he said.

“The outcome was inevitable given Nine Network’s comprehensive apology to me in September last year which included the withdrawal of the allegations, an acknowledgment that they were not true and the permanent deletion of the offending broadcasts from the internet.

“This decision marks the end of a challenging period for me and my family.

“My vindication is now complete and I intend to focus my attention on other endeavours.”

Nine’s director of news and current affairs Darren Wick said he was “disappointed” the awards had been withdrawn.

“The entry complied in all respects with the terms and conditions of the Clarions,” he said.
“We are disappointed that the Clarions have supposedly made this decision, despite not informing the journalists of the basis for the decision and failing to identify any power under their own terms and conditions allowing them to do so.”

Rebeka Powell’s Instagram post after she won three Clarion awards.

The MEAA said in a statement: “A range of submissions and other materials were considered in coming to the decision. MEAA will not be elaborating further”.

In 2022 the Walkley Foundation commissioned a wide-ranging review of its “complaints mechanisms”, following the fallout from the organisation’s decision to award one of its prestigious journalism honours for the same story by Nine about Dr Laming that was subsequently discredited.

The Foundation withdrew the award given to Nine’s Fegan and Powell in the television/news reporting category after the media company lost a court battle with Dr Laming in the Federal Court.

Nine aired a report falsely claiming Dr Laming took an indecent photograph of a woman bending over and showing her underwear while she was stacking a fridge with drinks.

The company was forced to apologise to him and pay him an undisclosed amount of damages which was understood to be close to $1 million.

A series of journalists also tweeted about Dr Laming in 2021, falsely accusing him of upskirting a woman.

This included ABC investigative reporter Louise Milligan on her own Twitter account.

The ABC paid Milligan’s legal costs and $79,000 in damages to Dr Laming – in total it cost taxpayers more than $200,000.