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James Button

Biographical Notes from The Walkley Awards website

Print - Newspaper Feature Writing - Winner

James Button, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, "A Death in Zurich"

Around 70 per cent of Australians support legalising euthanasia, but James Button brought a very human face to the debate with these three moving features, documenting the final days of terminally ill Australian Dr John Elliott.

Elliott travelled with his wife Angelika to Switzerland to become the sixth Australian to legally end their life with the aid of assisted-suicide organisation Dignitas.

Button and photographer Kate Geraghty were invited to witness and chronicle Elliott's final days, but not his death, to help push the issue onto the political agenda.

The challenge for Button was to get close to Elliott and his supporters, including his doctor and right-to-die advocate Dr Philip Nitschke, without compromising his editorial independence.

Writing to tight deadlines, Button reported the personal, medical and political facets to the story with balance and respect.

Button is based in London as The Age's Europe correspondent. He started with the paper in 1986 as a cadet. In the early 1990s he had four years away from The Age, winning a Walkley for feature writing while at Time Magazine in 1992 and also taking out that year's Gold Walkley.

Judges' comments

An emotive, beautifully written piece. An extraordinary, eloquent insight into an issue people don't want to face but are secretly fascinated by. Button was able to tell John Elliott's intensely personal story, while retaining an independent viewpoint.