Our investigative journalism has been recognised with a premier award and two runner up citations at the Voyager Media Awards.
Newsroom has won three more national media awards - for best investigation, arts and culture reporting, and reviewing – and was runner up for political reporting, current affairs series and team investigation.
Our Newsroom Investigates lead, Melanie Reid, won for the Voyager Media Awards best individual investigation, for a powerful video story revealing bullying within an Oranga Tamariki youth detention centre that was subsequently closed.
Judges said of Reid’s category: “The individual investigation award shows that journalists are doggedly holding power to account … It is a credit to publishers and senior editors that so much effort is being committed to investigative reporting with such strong results.”
It’s the second year in a row Newsroom has won the highly competitive category, with Aaron Smale taking the title in 2021. In the five years Newsroom has been in operation, we’ve also won story of the year twice and an award for best editorial campaign from our big investigations.
Newsroom Investigates was also runner up for best current affairs series (won by Māori TV's Te Ao with Moana) and for the best team investigation by Reid, Bonnie Sumner, Cassandra Mason and Paul Enticott - for stories exposing plans to alter a reef in Fiji to create waves for surfers, and an inquiry into the NZ and international projects by the firm behind the plan. That award went to Smale for investigative podcast The Lake, made before he joined Newsroom as Māori issues editor.
Our political editor Jo Moir was declared runner-up for Political Journalist of the Year, won by Newshub's Jenna Lynch from a strong field.
Newsroom’s literary editor Steve Braunias won the award for reporting on arts and culture, for stories on ReadingRoom and also at the New Zealand Herald.
And contributor Philip Matthews won for best reviewer for his outstanding pieces in ReadingRoom on books by CK Stead and Charlotte Grimshaw. Judges said: “The way Matthews doesn’t waste a word and has such clarity of judgment makes him by some distance our best reviewer.”
The Voyager award for best news website went to nzherald.co.nz, for the third year in a row.
Reporter of the year was Kirsty Johnston of Stuff: Broadcast reporter, news, went to Tova O'Brien, formerly of Newshub; long form feature writer to Pete McKenzie for North & South: short form feature writer Simon Wilson of the NZ Herald; photographer of the year Brett Phibbs: opinion writer Toby Manhire of The Spinoff and newspaper of the year The Press, Christchurch.
A full list of Voyager Media Awards winners is on the Voyager Media Awards site
