Editorial: Coverage of Havelock North water crisis a top priority for region's newspaper

Andrew Austin, editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

This month Hawke's Bay Today was named a finalist in the Canon Awards' newspaper of the year (up to 30,000 category) and the best coverage of a major news event category for our reporting of the Havelock North water contamination.

Our deputy chief photographer, Paul Taylor, won the best general photo category for a superb shot he took, while Kaysha Brownlie, the New Zealand Herald's Local Focus reporter who works out of our office, was a finalist in the best junior reporter category.

We are very proud of the achievements and it was good to see hard work by those two individuals and the entire team acknowledged.

While we did not win either of the newspaper awards, it was still good to be named as a finalist. The work we submitted for both categories was largely based around our coverage of the Havelock North water crisis.

We have also received several letters and comments from people thanking us for our coverage of the crisis and the ongoing water issues.

For us it is very straight forward - it was a big local issue and deserved in-depth coverage.

We make no excuses for the way we have reported on it and for the hard questions we have asked our councils.

Our readers expect this of us and are constantly telling me that we need to keep asking questions. The gastro crisis in Havelock North last year was a big deal - more than five thousand people became ill and there were deaths linked to the outbreak.

We gave the initial findings of the Inquiry into the crisis full coverage and we will do the same for the second phase when it is released.

We also plan to cover the water symposium tomorrow and Friday, which we hope will not simply be a talkfest, but will have some meaningful outcomes.

We will keep you posted.