The ABC has dominated the 2022 Walkley Awards, picking up gongs in eleven of 26 eligible categories, including the Gold Walkley for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism and Press Photographer of the Year.

Four Corners team Anne Connolly, Ali Russell and Stephanie Zillman won the Gold Walkley, Australian journalism’s highest honour and the Award for best Public Service Journalism for their investigation “State Control”. 

Judges described it as “enlightening and determined reporting, giving power to voiceless people and allowing them to tell a story of complete powerlessness. Prompting debate about law reform in various states, it has the potential to effect large-scale public policy reform”.

Long-time Four Corners executive producer, Sally Neighbour’s impact was recognised with the award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism. During Neighbour’s stewardship Four Corners won eighteen Walkleys, including two Gold. Stories she commissioned led to Royal Commissions into youth justice, banking, aged care and Murray-Darling water theft

Brendan Esposito was named Press Photographer of the Year for a powerful body of work spanning Ukraine and Australia for the ABC.

Other award winners included:

• Innovation: Mark Doman, Michael Slezak and the Digital Story Innovation Team, ABC, “Using 3D techniques to tell immersive stories” (Lawless Loggers, Culture in the Crosshairs, The Syria Playbook, How a Tongan Volcano Shocked the World)
• Community and regional coverage: ABC North Coast Team, “Northern Rivers flood catastrophe”
• Sports journalism: Lorna Knowles, Nikki Tugwell and Clare Blumer, ABC, “Painful Past: the John Wright series”
• Radio/Audio news and current affairs: Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop, ABC, “Ukraine war crimes”
• Television/video camerawork: Ryan Sheridan, ABC Four Corners, “Despair and Defiance” and “Feral”
• Television/Video current affairs (less than 20 minutes): Lorna Knowles and Nikki Tugwell, ABC, 7.30, “Painful Past: the John Wright series”
• Television/video current affairs (more than 20 minutes: Adele Ferguson, Klaus Toft and Lauren Day, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Four Corners, “Cosmetic Cowboys: The unregulated world of cosmetic surgery”