Moana Maniapoto, from Māori Television's "Te Ao with Moana", has been named the Supreme Award Winner in this year's 2020 Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Journalism Awards.
Maniapoto won the award for her interviews with Teina Pora and David Tamihere against the backdrop of the newly established Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Judge Mereana Hond, an Al Jazeera journalist based in Qatar, said it was an exceptional piece of journalism that laid bare the inter-generational burden of institutionalised racism, profiling and questionable police and prosecution practices through the stories of two high-profile Māori men.
She said "Teina Pora and David Tamihere both say they are innocent. One has been cleared, the other has not. What a clever idea to bring them together to try to understand why. What fantastic journalism and access to be able to deliver on that whakaaro."
New Zealand journalist Mereana Hond, of Taranaki Iwi and Ngāti Ruanui, works at Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar. She is pictured with her husband Ben Gibbins, and their 5-year-old twins Te Whetu Matarere and Tapuwae, with whom Hond only speaks te reo Māori.
The other finalists in the Current Affairs English Category were Te Aniwa Hurihanganui, from RNZ, and Tania Page, from TVNZ.
In the Best News Story in English Category, the winner was Carmen Parahi, from Stuff, for her story on the compensation and apology for injured servicemen, George and Damien Nepata. The other finalists were Mani Dunlop, from Radio NZ, and Meriana Johnsen, also from Radio NZ.
Kereama Wright, from Māori Television, was named the winner of Best News Story in Te Reo Māori for his exclusive into the rebranding of a mongrel mob chapter with a story entitled "No more sieg heil". The other finalists were Rukuwai Tipene-Allen, of Māori Television, and Hania Douglas, from TVNZ.
The Current Affairs in Te Reo Māori category was awarded to Whatitiri Te Wake, TVNZ, for his story on the tikanga around Māori male hairstyles.
This year the judges also made a special commendation to TVNZ's Marae programme for their Episode 5 which focused on the tangi of rangatira, Dr Huirangi Waikerepuru. The judges said the programme was an innovative use of the medium of television at an unprecedented time with Covid lockdowns preventing traditional tangi. The programme embodied its very name to create a national marae where people could grieve and pay tribute in a uniquely Māori way.
And so it was also fitting that the Te Tohu a Tanara Whairiri Kitawhiti Ngata, Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded posthumously to Waikerepuru for his ground-breaking work in helping establish Māori Broadcasting through his efforts to revitalise te reo Māori. The judges acknowledged that his considerable passion and determination created the platform on which Māori journalists stand today.
