International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Mary-Louise O’Callaghan, Australia, is The Australian’s South Pacific correspondent, a region she has covered for over a decade.

Mary-Louise O’Callaghan, Australia

In early 1997, O’Callaghan exposed a secret deal between the government of Papua New Guinea and Sandline International, a private British mercenary company, to crush a decade-long secessionist rebellion on the island of Bougainville that had shut down one of the world’s largest open-cut copper mines. The government denied the covert operations against its own people until O’Callaghan’s series revealed the details, resulting in a diplomatic crisis between Australia and its former colony, two public inquiries, and the defeat of Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan in subsequent national elections. For her Bougainville exclusive, O’Callaghan won the 1997 Gold Walkley, Australia’s highest journalism honor, for the most outstanding piece of journalism.