Spotlight on Briana Fiore
Winner of the 2021 Young Journalist of the Year Award: Coverage of community and regional affairs
“When you’re working for a community and they value your work it’s a really good feeling and it makes you want to stick around.”
West Australian journalist Briana Fiore won the Young Journalist Award for Community and regional affairs for her series of stories exposing deadly failures at a local hospital.
“Briana’s initiative to start a beat for her Filipino community ultimately led to the exposure of Bunbury Hospital’s toxic culture and fatal failings, including the death of a mother during childbirth,” the Walkley judges said. “The relationships and trust she forged resulted in breaking stories that ensured the issues were not only brought to light, but investigated by authorities.”
We spoke with Briana about sparking political engagement in local communities, giving voice to minority groups and why you can never have too many mentors.
Congratulations on winning the Community Regional Award this year. What’s the significance to you of winning this award for this body of work, the Bunbury Hospital investigation?
I don’t think any journos do it for the awards — when you’re writing the story it’s not even anything that you think about, you’re just so committed to giving these people a voice. To get the award on top of that it’s just a nice cherry on top, and it can help to shine more light on the issue and help more people come forward, so that’s always nice. Since the award we’ve had even more people come forward and share their stories.
In a regional setting, it’s really cool to see regional mastheads get put on the national stage. The Harvey-Waroona Reporter is a small publication down here, one of the The West Australian’s smallest, but to be on the Walkley stage is huge and it means a lot as a journalist. I know the community were thrilled so it’s nice for the readers as well because they’re the ones that make it possible.
Tell us a little bit about this investigation. How did it get started for you? How did it unravel?
I’m from the Harvey area — Harvey, Waroona, Brunswick, big shout out to all of those wonderful communities — we’re a multicultural community. There’s a lot of migrants, there’s dairy farming, we have abattoirs, oranges, so those industries attract a lot of migrant workers. After World War II we had a lot of Italian migration and more recently, within the last decade, we have had a lot of Filipino migration, which it’s great because the community is quite accepting and welcoming of different cultures.
I really wanted the local media to reflect that and so I started a Filipino series for our migrants — we’re a small, weekly publication so it was just a weekly series, I think I did six during my cadetship — called “Kuwentong Pinoy sa Harvey”, which means the “Filipino stories of Harvey”. And I just started chatting with them, met with a lot of them and we did some really cool articles. But then they told me about how they still hadn’t received answers six months after one of their own had died at the hospital during childbirth.
Initially I just wanted to get them some answers and I didn’t really know what to expect. At the start, I didn’t know it would uncover what it did. I thought, OK, maybe there’s some language barriers, but when I had a chat to them they were fluent and beautiful in English so I thought, that’s not it. And it just started from there.
We exposed that death of Melody, and the hospital and their team said that there were no clinical errors. But after that we had whistle blowers come forward and claim that maybe there were some more things that could have been done. And then we got leaked a government report, which exposed the toxic culture of that hospital. It’s been, I think, about six months now where we just get inundated continuously with complaints from people there and patients. That’s how it started. It took me by surprise, really.
So it’s still developing for you and there’s still outcomes evolving?
Yeah, the night of the Walkley Celebration, actually, I stepped out to take a phone call and that was on another case and another family looking for answers after a death. The hospital, once again, said there were no clinical errors, but the family still had questions they wanted answered. It’s still ongoing.
What have been some of the impacts that you’ve seen come out of this reporting?
It’s just nice to see families and people in minority groups get a voice and be heard, and to get answers and to even have a chat with the leaders at the hospital and to get some closure that way. That’s why we do it.
But also, a lot of the medical unions, which are quite active in WA, have jumped on board and done some of their own investigating and they found some more worrying results, so they’ve published them in their reports and have kept us in the loop, which has been good. And then WorkSafe investigated as well, and the hospital investigated at least one of the individual cases.
That’s what’s happened just from an article. And since that story, which was in the public health system, more stories across Perth and across the entire state have been in the media ever since. There’s one in the media at least every day across all the different media sites in WA, so the health system has been in the media and in the spotlight ever since. It’s ramped up the pressure for our politicians.
It really sparked something.
There have been protests. We had some other cases that have happened at different hospitals, such as Perth Children’s Hospital. It’s just taken off and I think people have discovered that they can use the media to come forward and get their answers, which is really cool. It’s what it’s all about.
Do you have a message to the Australian public about why supporting this important public interest journalism is crucial?
We can’t do our job without the public, and we work for the public, so when they trust us and put their stories in our hands, it can result in real change.
I would encourage people that if they have a story, reach out to a journalist that they trust or have followed or believe in because sometimes really good results can come of it, especially in the regions. I’m a regional journalist, or I was a regional journalist, and I think that that’s really important.
We have to make sure the regions are included in the future of journalism because regional journalists cover things like councils and courts, and without that a lot of residents wouldn’t know what’s going on inside those council meetings.
It’s a light that otherwise wouldn’t be shone on local matters of interest.
I urge all media companies to continue supporting regional journalists and making sure those mastheads and bulletins remain in the regions because they directly affect locals.
And without media spotlight, the councillors can run amok, essentially. I remember when I was covering my local council at the Harvey-Waroona Reporter, it sparked political participation from the residents, so in a council meeting where there would usually be myself and maybe two members of the public and the councillors, it suddenly turned into myself, the councillors and dozens of members of the public.
In one case the whole town turned out to protest a decision and that may not have happened if they didn’t know about it and the local media wasn’t there to cover it. It’s just really important that we give the regions a voice.
How did you first get into journalism and what made you want to pursue this career path?
I started studying neuroscience at the University of Western Australia, but I’m not very good with blood or anything like that so I made the quick switch to media and I never looked back. I guess I can still cover the health system, which is what I was interested in, and clearly what I’m interested in now as well.
But I think, it’s a passion. I don’t think you can just say “I like to write” because that doesn’t cut it. Journalism can be really rewarding, but it can be tough, and if you just like to write it’s probably not going to help you find your purpose. For me, I like working with whistle blowers because I think that they’re important for democracy. I like giving a voice to minority groups, which is why I started the series for my Filipino community, and I like holding those in power to account.
The local council, the state politicians, federal politicians, anyone who’s in a powerful position, I think that they should be watched. That’s why I do it.
What are you hoping will come from the mentoring that is part of prize?
That was why I entered in the first place, just to get a mentor. Because when I was in the regions, you’re covering 20 little areas or towns by yourself and it can be quite hard. I now work for The West Australian, so all the senior journalists always help me and I can always get advice, but in the regions and for new journos, it’s hard.
You have so many questions, even on how to ask the right questions and not get handed between authorities, or ethical questions or photography questions. A lot of the basic stuff I just didn’t really know so I wanted a mentor to bounce ideas off.
Like I said, I’ve been lucky. Where I am now I get lots of help, but you can never have too many mentors, so I’m really excited to have an extra one to annoy with questions. I would also like to say thank you to the editor-in-chief of The West Australian Anthony De Ceglie, because when I found the Bunbury Hospital story, I went straight to him and he replied to my emails and helped me. And if he hadn’t then this story probably wouldn’t have come to light because I probably wouldn’t have know what steps to take.
When I was talking to media advisers, they’re quite good at putting you on a different path, and I think if you get your first rejection, as a young journo, you’re a bit gullible and you go with that. I was grateful to have some older journos support me so I could get around that hurdle.
I’ve only been a journo for less than 18 months. When I broke this story, I’d been a journo for 12 months. I’d just finished my cadetship and so you’re still working out the basics, like how to deal with different people and how to chase stories. So to have a mentor when you’re young, I guess it can make or break your career, and I’m really excited, really grateful.
Is there anybody else that you would like to thank for their involvement in this story?
Firstly, the readers at the Harvey-Waroona Reporter, Bunbury Herald, South Western Times; they worked with me and they believed in me as a journo before I even believed in myself.
It was always really encouraging when readers would stop you in the street and say that they liked your story.
I was probably really insecure and unsure about it when I first started, but the support from my readers made me want to stay and stick it out and I’m so glad I did. Because when you’re working for a community and they value your work it’s a really good feeling and it makes you want to stick around.
They’re probably the biggest group I want to thank. And then The West Australian and the regional mastheads, the leaders and the editors. On this investigation, our editors Anthony De Ceglie, John Flint, Ben McClellan, Peter Law and Jakeb Waddell — they all guided me with this series. Harvey was my hometown as well, so doing journalism in your hometown can be a bit interesting, when you’re covering the courts and then you see someone on the street or at the servo. And thanks to my family — including my Mum, Dad and Grandparents.
Briana Fiore is a state political journalist at The West Australian in Perth. She joined the team after just 15 months covering local government, courts, sport, agriculture and general news at the Harvey-Waroona Reporter and South Western Times. Briana is committed to sharing the stories of those in minority groups, uncovering the truth and holding those in power to account.
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