The NT Independent has been named a Walkley Award finalist for its investigative reporting, while also picking up another NT Media Award nomination for its investigative series exposing cover-ups in the NT Police.

The NT Independent is the only independent local news agency in the country named as a finalist for the 68th Walkley Awards, along the likes of ABC Four Corners, Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, The Monthly, The Australian, Network 10, and Spotlight.

Reporters Christopher Walsh and David Wood have been nominated in the “All Media: Coverage of Community and Regionals Affairs” category for their investigative series “Fatal Failures: Behind the Scenes of the Zach Rolfe Affair”.

The pair have also been nominated for Best Crime/Court reporting at the NT Media Awards for the same series.

The special investigation raised troubling questions about the integrity of the NT Police executive and the NT’s criminal justice system in the aftermath of the heavily publicised Supreme Court murder trial of Zach Rolfe, which resulted in legal threats against Walsh and Wood and surveillance by the police.

The series centred around an obtained redacted police coronial report that had been hidden from the public which Walsh and Wood used, along with information from high-level sources, to peel back the layers of the cover-up and the lies around the massive failings of senior police that led to that night in Yuendumu, where lives were changed forever. The reports also examined the subsequent criminal trial that was compromised from the beginning by the tampering of evidence, the conflicts of interest and political powerplays that are only now being investigated by relevant authorities, after the former commissioner left the role.

“We do what we do to have an impact, to bring the facts of what has been covered up to Territorians so they’re not left in the dark,” Walsh said.

“To get recognition on the national stage by the Walkley Foundation is definitely an honour and should probably send a shiver down the spine of our government and those in positions of power here who now know the rest of the country is watching.”

Asked for comment, Wood said: “How do you like them apples, Fylesy”.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has continued her predecessor’s ban on this publication from attending ministerial press conferences and obtaining government information from departments. In August, she blatantly lied while addressing the National Press Club, doubling down on the ban that has been widely condemned by national and international media groups and the federal Senate, claiming the NT Independent is “not a professional media organisation” and that it reports “misinformation”.

Those allegations are strongly refuted by the editor.

Asked at a press conference this morning by a reporter about this publication being named as a finalist for a Walkley and whether she would reconsider the ban, Ms Fyles said: “I’m not going to place commentary on the NT Independent, I’ve said what I said”.

The press conference was then abruptly ended by her media handlers.

Shona Martyn, CEO of the Walkley Foundation, said the finalists for this year’s awards had “produced extraordinary works of public interest journalism”.

“The quality of the finalists is high and they are all to be commended for shining a light on darkness and on telling the stories that need to be told in their own mediums,” she said in the statement announcing the finalists.

The 68th Walkley Awards will be held in Sydney on November 23. The NT Media Awards will be held in Darwin on November 4.