The work of two Illawarra Mercury staff has been recognised at the prestigious Walkley Awards ceremony.
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The winners of the 63rd annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism – across 30 categories – were announced during a gala event at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday night.
Shannon Tonkin, the Mercury’s court reporter, was a finalist in the Best Coverage of Regional and Community Affairs category.
The award was won by Belinda-Jane Davis from The Maitland Mercury.
Tonkin was recognised for her work on this newspaper’s State of Neglect campaign, which called for increased penalties for serious cases of child neglect in NSW.
Earlier this year, Tonkin was awarded the Chris Watson Award for Outstanding Regional Newspaper Reporting category in the prestigious Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism.
The “State of Neglect” campaign began after Tonkin revealed a shocking case of child neglect involving an Illawarra mother.
It was a case described by a Wollongong magistrate as one of the worst he’d ever seen.
The coverage has since prompted a review of NSW child neglect laws.
She was joined at Thursday night’s awards ceremony by Mercury photographer Sylvia Liber, who was named the winner of two Walkley photographic awards last month.
Liber picked up the 2018 Nikon-Walkley Community/Regional Prize and the 2018 Nikon-Walkley Portrait Prize for photography. She accepted both awards on Thursday night.
A portfolio of work titled “Sea of Emotions” won the photographer the Community/Regional Prize.
The main image submitted as part of the portfolio was an image Liber titled “Deep Love for Dance”.
Liber won the Portrait Prize for her photo “Trapped in the wrong body”.
This year’s dual award win takes Liber’s Walkley count to four. In 2015, she won the Community/Regional Prize for a series of five pictures.
In 2014, Liber took out the Portrait Prize for a photograph titled “Little Princess”.
Meanwhile, two Wollongong-based Australian Community Media (ACM) staff have been acknowledged as part of Fairfax Media’s annual Women of Influence awards.
The company awards – which are in their sixth year – recognise and celebrate the contributions and successes of exceptional women within the Fairfax community.
Gayle Tomlinson, ACM’s social media editor, was a finalist in the Innovation Leader category.
Brenda Rostron, ACM’s HR business partner, was one of five finalists in the Customer Centric category.
Both women work out of the Mercury’s Wollongong office. The winners were announced on Thursday.
