The 2018 Gold Quill Acceptance speech  

The Herald Sun Journalists who broke and led the coverage of the Lawyer X scandal have won the highest honour in Victorian journalism - the Gold Quill Award.

Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon were honoured for their work in 2018 that culminated in the recent revelation that gangland lawyer Nicola Gobbo was a secret police informer who betrayed many of her clients.

The award was presented at the Melbourne Press Club’s annual Quill Awards dinner in Melbourne on Friday 15 March 2019.

The judges said of the winning work: "Anthony Dowsley’s dogged five-year pursuit of truth and public interest to reveal lawyer Nicola Gobbo’s secret double life as a police informer who helped convict many of her own clients exemplifies the very best of modern-day journalism. It was a blockbuster scoop. 

"Dowsley’s work with Patrick Carlyon uncovered gross misconduct the consequences of which will reverberate throughout Victoria’s criminal justice system for years to come and could yet see some of the state’s most notorious underworld figures freed from prison.

"The journalists’ tenacity helped overcome many often expensive legal obstacles before they laid out a complex trail of deceit in an engrossing and powerful narrative”.

Dowsley was also named the 2018 Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year at the dinner for his work on Lawyer X and new revelations about the Silk-Miller police murders.

The Gold Quill carries a $7500 prize supported by the Melbourne Press Club’s Principal Sponsors Virgin Australia and Monash University.

A total of 28 individual Quills were awarded to recognise the best journalism of 2018 in print, television, radio and online.