A Sydney journalist who investigated the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre saga has spoken of becoming almost physically ill at seeing footage of a teen boy strapped to a chair being brutalised.
Caro Meldrum-Hanna, who was crowned the 2016 Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year on Friday night, described the case of Dylan Voller as "dark and disturbing".
"They say in broadcast the pictures don't lie, and these pictures certainly don't," she said upon accepting her award at Victoria's Quill Awards evening.
"Of course they aren't angels...but remember more than 70 per cent of those boys and 80 per cent of those girls have been terribly abused...before they ever offend."
Judges praised Meldrum-Hanna, of ABC's Four Corners, for revealing the incriminating video footage showing boys being held in isolation, tear-gassed and brutalised in the Northern Territory.
As a direct result of her story, the federal government ordered a Royal Commission into the country's entire juvenile justice system.
Gutsy Melbourne sports reporter Caroline Wilson won the Harry Gordon Australian Sports Journalist of the Year Award, with judges describing her work as "groundbreaking" and "crusading".
The Gold Quill Award, Victoria's top journalism prize, was won by ABC 7.30 reporters Louise Mulligan and Andy Burns for their "exhaustive" work into the Catholic Church child sex scandal.
The pair also produced the scoop that Cardinal George Pell was the subject of a Victoria Police investigation.
The Age's Adele Ferguson and Mario Christodoulou with Four Corners producer Klaus Toft won two gongs for their work into the CommInsure scandal and cover-up.
