The attempt to contain the fallout from the ABC’s investigation into its former journalist Mahmood Fazal spread from the public broadcaster to the Walkley Foundation this week.
Fazal is the subject of an ABC Ombudsman investigation into his use of confidential sources (more on that later), and was a key focus of both an investigation published by The Monthly last week and the ABC’s Media Watch program on Monday. Two of his Four Corners episodes, Cocaine Nation and Meth Highway, have been removed by the ABC.
Fazal has publicly defended his journalism and denied wrongdoing. In a video posted on social media this week, he said he had been twice shortlisted for the Walkley Awards, journalism’s most prestigious prize, and emphasised he had “won the award before I even walked through the door of the ABC.”
In 2020, Fazal and his producer Rebecca Metcalf won the Walkley’s Media Diversity Award for his podcast series No Gangsters In Paradise. The show, released by Audible, investigated the gangland wars in Western Sydney.
