Pip Courtney’s dedication of her IFAJ Broadcast Award win

I am thrilled and honoured to win this award. It’s an important story in Australia and I am very grateful my employer, the ABC, gave me the time to research and shoot such a complex piece.

The story was filmed over several months and I was lucky enough to shoot most of it with my husband cinematographer John Bean.

John was a brilliant cameraman and a delight to work with – producing great pictures for his journos and putting the talent so at ease that we always came away with more then we planned.

The reason I am not at the Congress is because my darling husband of 12 years was killed in a helicopter crash while filming a nature documentary in the Australian outback last month. It was THE job every ABC cameraman wanted and he was so excited to be booked for it.

He was my biggest supporter – my greatest fan – if things had been different he’d be in our home in Australia right now tweeting, face booking texting and phoning everyone he knew to tell them about the wonderful news.

Thank you to the IFAJ for the wonderful job you do. I returned from Texas two years ago renewed as a journalist. I had a swag of new friends and felt a member of a big new family I hadn’t realised existed.

You honour me with this award, but I’d like to honour my husband by dedicating it to his memory.

Pip Courtney

ABC Landline