By Antoinette Lattouf
ETTE-SLUSIVE: The Western Australia Police Force has unveiled a novel way to recognise good journalism: by awarding prizes to the journalists who report on them. This comes after a bruising year of headlines—from a parliamentary finding that the Western Australia Police Force is reluctant to investigate internal misconduct, to six officers being sanctioned over their treatment of an Aboriginal man who died in custody in Kalgoorlie.
Finalists for the inaugural Wheatley-Coulter Crime Reporter Award, believed to be the first police-run journalism prize in the country, include a WA Today entry titled How Police Cracked the Bikie Code of Silence.
The awards, named after veteran Perth crime reporters Ralph Wheatley and Jack Coulter, whose reporting assisted police in the 1963 capture of a serial killer, include three categories and cash prizes of up to $2,000 which will be presented by event sponsors P&N Bank.
Seven of the nine finalists work for Nine-owned outlets, including WAtoday and Nine News. The remaining finalists are a reporter from 7NEWS and former ABC Perth Drive presenter Gary Adshead, who now writes for Business News.
Ette Media asked Nine whether it had discussed any potential conflicts of interest and whether police-sponsored awards could affect perceptions of editorial independence.
Nine did not respond.
Tom Raue, founder of Anticop which describes itself as an educational resource about police violence, corruption, and activism, said the award risks rewarding favourable coverage.
“This feels like rewarding and remunerating copaganda.”
Raue pointed to one finalist, Turning Point: Lessons from Floreat, which is a three-part series into the 2024 deadly shooting of Jennifer Petelczyc and her daughter Gretl. Part two of the series is focused on positive police reforms "where officers undergo newly implemented training programs to prepare for family violence call outs... changes [which] were introduced in direct response to the Floreat tragedy and reflect a broader cultural shift within law enforcement".
