Three Herald reporters and one of the masthead’s photographers have won awards at this year’s Mid-Year Walkley Prizes for journalism for their work covering crime and exposing sexual predators online.
Riley Walter, a crime reporter at the Herald, was named the 2026 John B Fairfax Family Young Australian Journalist of the Year at the Walkley Foundation’s Mid-Year Media Prizes in Sydney on Thursday evening, with education reporter Emily Kowal scooping up the shortform journalism award, and Parramatta bureau chief Anthony Segaert taking home the award for public service journalism.
Photographer Audrey Richardson, who now works at the Herald as a visual journalist trainee, won the award for visual storytelling for images she published as a freelancer.
The awards cap off a sweep of seven nominations for the masthead announced last month, spanning investigations, crime, education, health, the arts and local government affairs, the highest of any publication in Australia.
Walkley Foundation chief executive Shona Martyn congratulated the winners and noted the “high quality” of this year’s entries.
“In a time of great change in the media, we are ever more reliant on journalists, broadcasters and photojournalists with a nose for news and an ability to interpret and analyse key issues facing Australians today,” Martyn said.
“At an event where we shine a particular spotlight on the next generation of journalists through awards and scholarships, there is much to be encouraged about.”
Walter collected the Young Australian Journalist of the Year award for his Penthouse Syndicate investigation. He also won the prize for the specialist and beat reporting category for a collection of stories spanning the Penthouse Syndicate, the Bondi massacre, and the maritime and border bungle that allowed a tonne of cocaine to be imported into Australia. He was also a finalist in the shortform category.
“Riley Walter broke news on three quite separate scandals. The revelations about organised crime at the NAB would have been a strong candidate on its own,” the judges said. “His scoop with the farm owner who rented his property to the Akrams before the Bondi massacre was one everyone wanted, providing critical insights into the accused men. A third story on law enforcement failings that allowed a surveilled ship to land a tonne of cocaine in Australia left no doubt about the winner. Tremendous work. The judges look forward to seeing what comes next for Riley’s career.”
Kowal, meanwhile, won the shortform journalism prize for her exposé on digital predators within artificial intelligence and Roblox, while Segaert won the public service journalism category for a series of stories exposing the ructions inside Parramatta Council.
Herald editor Jordan Baker said she was thrilled with the masthead’s young reporters.
“I am incredibly proud of our hard-working, passionate and talented young reporters and photographers,” Baker said.
“The mid-year awards has recognised particular examples of their work, but these journalists produce outstanding work every day. I’d like to thank our subscribers too, whose support makes it possible for the Herald to continue its proud tradition of nurturing new generations of Australian journalists.”
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
