The former ABC broadcaster Kerry O’Brien got a standing ovation at the 70th Walkley awards on Thursday night for a rousing speech that reminded media in the ICC Sydney ballroom of the “clear and present danger for a strong, free, effective and independent media everywhere”.
The winner of six Walkley awards, including the Gold, called on the industry to unite to strengthen press freedom. He began by paying tribute to Palestinian journalists who have “confronted the world with powerful evidence that has gradually taken on the look and feel of genocide in real time” and decried the “outrageous casualty list of Palestinian journalists and other media workers in Israel’s war on Gaza since the brutal attack by Hamas on Israeli citizens two years ago”.
