Two top gongs, many others for NT News, Sky News at awards
THE NT News and Sky News have taken out gold awards and a slew of silver at the 2021 NT Media Awards.
Sky News reporter Matt Cunningham won the prestigious Journalist of the Year title on Saturday night.
Cunningham also took home the Indigenous Affairs Reporting category for his exclusive on then-treaty commissioner Mick Dodson being aggressive towards Aboriginal women.
The reporter also won Best News Coverage in the television/radio category for similar work.
The judges acknowledged Cunningham’s professionalism, thorough research, investigation and follow up pieces that led to Mr Dodson’s resignation.
For her body of work at the NT News, Sarah Matthews won Marchbanks Young Journalist of the Year.
Matthews was commended for her coverage of diverse issues that were highly important to the NT and nationally.
The NT News’ Restore Our Rights fight for Territorians to be able to make their decisions on issues such as euthanasia earned Judith Aisthorpe and Madura McCormack the Pete Davies Memorial Campaigning Journalism award.
For his photographic coverage of the Tiwi Islands football grand final, Che Chorley took out the Visual Storytelling category.
Meanwhile, Kylie Stevenson’s Australia’s secret war in Borneo in The Weekend Australian won the Best Feature Writing category.
NT News editor Denise Cahill said winning the major awards for a series of strong Territory reports that attracted interest locally and nationwide cemented the paper’s position as the best news outlet in the Northern Territory.
“It’s been a big year for news, albeit challenging at times, and these awards are a credit to the hard-working journos reporting on issues that matter to the Territory day in and day out,” Cahill said.