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Lin Buckfield

Producer ABC Four Corners

Biographical Notes from The Walkley Awards website for 2006

Gold Walkley Award Winners

Lin Buckfield, Peter Cronau, Liz Jackson , Four Corners, ABC TV, “Stoking the Fires”

“Stoking the Fires” was filmed during the violence in East Timor in June 2006, and explored the political rivalries at play while the country teetered on the edge of becoming a bloodied failed state.

The Four Corners team gained access to the main rivals for power and the program revealed evidence that the then interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, was arming a secret civilian team – a fact known by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. In the wake of the program's revelations, the prime minister was forced to resign and the former interior minister is facing criminal charges. The exclusive story was picked up by all major news outlets in Australia and around the world.

Lin Buckfield joined the Nine Network in 1990 as a researcher before moving on to Seven as a reporter and producer. She started at Four Corners in 2000 and has since won three Walkley Awards as a producer with the program.

Peter Cronau has been a researcher and producer at Four Corners since 1998. Before that, he worked in community radio and on the ABC's Media Watch and ABC Radio's Background Briefing. This is his second Walkley.

Liz Jackson has been with the ABC since 1987. After spending seven years in radio, at Radio National and 2JJJ, she joined Four Corners as a reporter. In 2005 she also presented ABC's Media Watch. She has won five Walkley Awards.

Judges' comments
This story had a massive impact and brought down a prime minister. It was an outstanding piece of investigative journalism, produced under trying circumstances, in which Jackson doggedly uncovers a running battle for power. Displaying exemplary field craft, the program looked beyond the events of the day to investigate new leads. Amid a flood of very good reporting of the East Timor crisis, Four Corners stood out from the pack, unfolding the narrative largely through the words and actions of the participants.

Biographical Notes from The Walkley Awards website for 2005

All Media: International Journalism

Winners Sally Neighbour, Lin Buckfield, Jo Puccini, Four Corners, ABC TV, "The Kilwa Incident"

"The Kilwa Incident" uncovered an Australian mining company's complicity in a massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report generated worldwide news coverage and led to investigations by the Canadian government, the Australian Federal Police and the World Bank. The product of a two-month investigation, it culminated in a gruelling two-week trip to the country, where the team verified reports that dozens of innocent civilians had been killed. Harassed by the Congolese government's intelligence agency, the journalists were forced to film survivor and eyewitness accounts in secret and to smuggle the footage out of the country.

Sally Neighbour is a reporter with ABC TV's Four Corners and the winner of two previous Walkley awards.

Lin Buckfield started her career at Nine, before moving to Seven in 1995 as a reporter. She joined Four Corners in 2000 as a producer and has won two Walkleys for her television journalism.

Jo Puccini began her television career in 1995 at the Seven Network and moved to the ABC in 2000 to work on Media Watch. In 2001, she joined Four Corners. She has received two previous Walkley awards.

Judges' comments

This was an outstanding piece of journalism. The story took careful investigation and research to uncover a massacre that had received little international attention. Working under difficult conditions, the team completed a story that would otherwise have not been aired.