Newsroom has received five nominations for the 2024 Voyager Media Awards, including best podcast for Melanie Reid’s popular nine-part in depth investigation The Boy in the Water.
ReadingRoom’s Steve Braunias has been nominated for best columnist, opinion or critique, and Aaron Smale is up for the Te Tohu Kairangi award.
The Boy in the Water is also a finalist for best investigation, and Reid’s video documentary, Return to Gore, has been nominated for best short form current affairs.
“This story by our team is a case in point of why journalism matters so much: a police investigation that was closed, a father no one would listen to in a town too far south to be on anybody’s radar. We are all very honoured to have been selected as finalists in the Voyager Awards,” says Reid.
The Boy in the Water is a years-long investigation into the death of three-year-old Lachlan Jones, whose body was found face up in a Gore sewage oxidation pond.
Following the release of the podcast, police announced a second reinvestigation into the case.
In July last year Auckland-based Coroner Alexander Ho announced he would hold an inquest into the toddler’s death, due to begin at the end of this month.
The second season of The Boy in the Water will be launching mid-year, as Reid and her team follow the coronial inquiry from Invercargill.
The awards, which have been celebrating journalism in New Zealand since 1973, will be held on May 24.
