Donna Chisholm

Donna Elise Chisholm (born 9 June 1957) is a New Zealand investigative journalist and author.^[1]

Donna Chisholm in 2003

Career

Chisholm was the first female chief reporter at the Auckland Star newspaper.^[2] Former New Zealand Listener editor Jenny Wheeler has called her the most "outstanding health reporter New Zealand's ever seen."^[3] She is best known for her campaign in the Sunday Star-Times to free David Dougherty from prison for a rape he did not commit.^[3][4][5] Dougherty was subsequently exonerated and awarded $868,728 in compensation.^[4][6][7] Chisholm's six-year investigation was dramatised in the 2009 Television New Zealand film Until Proven Innocent,^[8] and recounted in the 2017 book A Moral Truth: 150 years of investigative journalism in New Zealand by James Hollings.^[9]

Chisholm is the author of the book From the Heart, a biography of the New Zealand heart surgeon Brian Barratt-Boyes.^[10]

She lives in Auckland, and was formerly the editor-at-large for monthly current affairs magazine North & South, and senior writer for the weekly New Zealand Listener.^[1]

Awards

• 2000: New Zealand Qantas Media Awards Newspaper Feature Writer of the Year^[11]
• 2004: New Zealand Qantas Media Awards Newspaper Feature Writer of the Year^[12]
• 2011: Canon Media Awards Magazine Feature Writer of the Year: the Helen Paske Trophy^[13]
• 2016: Canon Media Awards Science and Technology Feature Writing award^[14]
• 2017: Outstanding achievement award at the 2017 Voyager Media Awards^[1]
• 2018: Voyager Media Awards Science and Technology Award, joint winner^[15]