1998 George Munster Award winners

The 1998 George Munster Award for Independent Journalism has been won by two entrants. The winners were announced on Friday 9 October 1998 by Brian Johns, Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

The winners are: the freelance journalist Diane Armstrong for her story "Gossamer Across the Abyss", which was first published in the Australian and has since been republished around the world; and Gary Hughes of The Age and Gerard Ryle (now of the Sydney Morning Herald) for their series of investigative articles titled "The Secret Police" published in The Age between October 1997 and May 1998.

In presenting the award, Mr Johns emphasised the importance of maintaining and defending independent and thoughtful journalism. "Journalists' best work comes when they are working independently. That was the greatest strength of George Munster's publication Nation." Mr Johns was an early contributor to Nation.

The $3000 George Munster Award was given by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) for the outstanding piece/s of journalism published or broadcast in any medium in the year ending 30 June, 1998. The judges this year were the journalists Yvonne Preston and Peter Manning, as well as A/Prof Chris Nash, the director of the ACIJ.

Originally instituted as an award for freelance journalism, the George Munster Award has been given to freelance radio and print journalists since 1986. From this year, it was expanded to also include applicants who are not necessarily freelancers but who demonstrated independence of mind, acuity and excellence in their craft.

George Munster was a co-founder of Nation, a fortnightly journal (later to merge with The Review to become Nation Review), and a freelance editor, journalist and writer of books. He later became an editor with Angus and Robertson Publishers and reverted to freelance work both as a journalist and book writer. When George's book Rupert Murdoch: A Paper Prince was launched in October 1985, a little over a year after his death, a number of his friends decided to commemorate his life and the outstanding contribution he made to journalism by instituting an annual journalism award. The award presentation was made on Friday October 9, 1998 at the final night of the George Munster Journalism Forums which were conducted by the ACIJ in collaboration with ABC Radio National. Friday night's forum was on the role of humour in journalism and featured talks by columnists David Dale and Emma Tom, as well as by Prof. Conal Condren who teaches the history of political satire at the University of NSW. The forum will be broadcast on Sunday 18 October at 5.05pm in the Sunday Special timeslot on ABC Radio National.

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