<\/p>\n
Chris Masters (left) and Nick McKenzie after Ben Roberts-Smith lost his defamation case.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>James Brickwood<\/cite><\/p>\n McKenzie and Masters received their honour at the 68th Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism in Sydney on Thursday night, six months after their reporting on disgraced special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was vindicated by Justice Anthony Besanko. <\/p>\n Alongside the award, a new grant was announced in their names, the Masters-McKenzie Grant for Investigative Journalism, awarding $10,000 to a recipient each year.<\/p>\n Adding to his record on the night as the most decorated journalist in the history of the Walkleys, McKenzie said the special honour was recognition of the brave SAS whistleblowers who made the reporting on Roberts-Smith possible, as well his colleagues and editors at The Age<\/i>, The Sydney Morning Herald<\/i> and 60 Minutes<\/i> \u201cwho never stopped backing us to do the most difficult story of our lives\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m beyond thrilled to learn the Walkley Foundation is announcing a new investigative journalism grant that reporters can access. Hopefully, it will help inspire budding reporters to pick the hard yarn to chase when it matters, even if the threat of litigation or other blow back looms large,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Journalists from The Age <\/em>won Walkley awards across six other categories.<\/p>\n Former state politics reporter at The Age <\/em>and now federal politics reporter Paul Sakkal\u2019s \u201cDaniel Andrews under direct investigation in Operation Daintree\u201d reporting won the Print\/Text News Report category, probing an investigation into the former Victorian premier.<\/p>\n Justin McManus <\/i>won the Feature\/Photographic Essay category for \u201cLeaving the Land of Plenty\u201d as featured in The Sunday Age <\/em>and The Age<\/em> online, <\/em>returning to visit Effie on her farm in Plenty.<\/p>\n McKenzie was also awarded alongside colleagues from Nine\u2019s 60 Minutes, <\/i>Amelia Ballinger and Joel Tozer in the Television\/Video Current Affairs Long (more than 20 minutes) category for Trafficked, <\/i>a multipart series on border security, immigration and a national sex racket.<\/p>\n The Age<\/i>\u2019s Chinese-Australian political cartoonist, Badiucao, took out the Cartoon category.<\/p>\n One of Badiucao\u2019s prize-winning cartoons.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Illustration: Badiucao<\/cite><\/p>\n The Age<\/em>\u2019s visual stories team won the Digital Media award for Innovation Journalism for \u201cHow to lay a perfect offside trap \u2013 and how to break it\u201d during the peak of Matildas hype.<\/p>\n Already announced in October, photographer for The Age<\/i> Eddie Jim won the Nikon Portrait Prize for his photograph Fighting Not Sinking<\/em>.<\/i><\/p>\n Another special commendation saw chief investigative reporter at The Age\u2019s<\/em> sister publication, The Sydney Morning<\/em> Herald,<\/i> and 10-time winner Kate McClymont recognised for an outstanding contribution to journalism on the night, a nod to her three decades of reporting.<\/p>\n A two-year investigation, \u201cParadise Poisoned\u201d, led by the Herald\u2019s <\/i>Carrie Fellner and photographer Rhett Wyman, was awarded the Walkley for Coverage of Indigenous Issues, shining a light on the Wreck Bay community, located next to a defence base that used toxic firefighting foam. This was won alongside Mathew Cornwell and Katrina McGowan.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n