Mike Bowers was recognised with an award for his photo essay on the Anzac centenary, but judging convenor contacted him five days later to ask for it back

The Kennedy Foundation has apologised to Guardian Australia for “an error” which saw the foundation hand an award to one of its most senior journalists, but then ask for it back five days later.



On Friday 7 August, Guardian Australia’s photographer at large, Mike Bowers, was announced as the winner of the Kennedy’s 2015 Outstanding Online Photo Essay award for his work marking the centenary of the Gallipoli landings.

At the presentation at Sydney’s Royal Randwick racecourse, Bowers was called up to the stage and presented with a Kennedy trophy which had been engraved with his name. News of the win was posted on Twitter by the Kennedy Foundation’s official account. The next day the Guardian published a news story to mark Bowers’ win.

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Then on Wednesday, five days after the event, Peter Kogoy, the Kennedy’s judging convenor, contacted Bowers by telephone to tell him that the award had only been given to him because his name was sent to the award engravers by mistake.

Bowers was told that an earlier attempt had been made to contact him by email, but that the email had been sent to his old email address at the Global Mail, an organisation which closed down in 2013.

He was told the actual winner of the award, Nicholas Walker of Fairfax Media, had been informed of his win shortly after the event. Walker won for his photo essay of schoolies celebrating in Bali.

On Thursday the chairman of the Kennedy Foundation, Peter Ryan, contacted the editor-in-chief of Guardian Australia, Emily Wilson, to express his regret for the blunder. He said that the mistake had been immediately apparent on the night of the awards, but those concerned said nothing as “it was decided to spare Mike Bowers, as the runner up, from any on-stage embarassment”. Ryan, a veteran ABC journalist, did not hear of the blunder himself until Wednesday night.

Bowers, a former photographic editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and now the host of Talking Pictures on ABC’s Insiders as well as Guardian Australia’s photographer, said he was disappointed and embarrassed.

“A mistake was made, fair enough, however the organisers showed zero duty of care, waiting five days to contact me and tell both myself and the Guardian about the mistake,” Bowers said. “Let’s face it it was a clanger, I would have thought a phone call on Saturday would not have been out of the question?

“It’s incredibly inept and uncaring. I know photographer Nic Walker very well, he is a thoroughly decent man and a beautiful photographer. He deserved to feel as good as I did on Friday night about the wonderful body of work that he created. He was not given that chance.

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“I congratulate Nic for his work and his win. Sorry this is such a mess mate, you deserved better.”

Bowers added that he would not be entering the Kennedy awards again. “I have lost faith in the process and the people who run it,” he said. “It’s a shame, I worked very closely with Les Kennedy whose name is on those awards, and I don’t think he would be very impressed.”

Emily Wilson said that Bowers should have been told on the night of the awards that a mistake had been made, and if not, he or someone else at the Guardian should have been contacted the next day. “Our journalists’ contact details are all posted prominently on our website,” she said.

“I’m very disappointed for Mike, who is a wonderful photographer and who did such amazing and very personal work in Gallipoli this year. However I would like to join him in congratulating Nicholas Walker, who deserves to feel very proud of his win even if the awarding of it was horribly bungled.”

The Kennedy Foundation has since issued a statement expressing its “deep regret and sincere apologies” for the mistake.