Caro Meldrum-Hanna's Perkin Award acceptance speech
Caro Meldrum-Hanna has been named the 2016 Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year for her reporting on Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.
Meldrum-Hanna was named the 2016 Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year at the Melbourne Press Club’s Quill Awards dinner in Melbourne on Friday 17 March.
The award judges said Meldrum-Hanna’s Four Corners report ‘Australia’s Shame’ directly led to the Federal Government establishing a Royal Commission into Australia’s entire juvenile justice system.
“As a result of her dogged, uncompromising pursuit of the crucial, incriminating video footage, Four Corners viewers – and indeed the world – saw evidence of boys being held in isolation, tear-gassed and brutalised, with no attempt at rehabilitation,” the judges said.
“What her journalism revealed was the torture of Australian children, in what has since been described by one NT Government reviewer as ‘a human storage facility’.”
The Australian Journalist of the Year Award honours legendary Age editor Graham Perkin. It includes a $20,000 cash prize provided by The Age and is supported by Melbourne Press Club Principal Sponsor Virgin Australia.
There were three other finalists for the 2016 award: Linton Besser of ABC Four Corners, Dan Box of The Australian and Adele Ferguson for The Age.
The judges were Ray Martin, Lenore Taylor and Caroline Wilson.
Other Perkin Award Finalists
Linton Besser, ABC Four Corners, for investigative reporting in Malaysia and Australia
Dan Box, The Australian, for reporting on the Bowraville murders
Adele Ferguson, The Age, for reporting on the CommInsure claims scandal
The Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award is sponsored by The Age and Virgin Australia.
Visit the Perkin Honour Roll