LiSTNR’s Disclosed: The Children in the Pictures, the podcast that takes listeners inside Taskforce Argos, a team of Australia’s best detectives dedicated to infiltrating global criminal networks and rescuing children from online sexual abuse, has been garnering accolades at home and abroad.
The premier LiSTNR audio docu-series has been announced as a finalist in the prestigious 2023 Kennedy Awards in Audio Journalism: Outstanding Podcast.
In just six months since its launch, Disclosed: The Children in the Pictures podcast has been recognised with a Gold at the New York Radio Festival Awards for best narrative documentary and most recently took out best documentary podcast at the Radio Today Podcast Awards in July this year.
Disclosed: The Children in the Pictures is in the running alongside other high profile journalists and their stories, with winners announced on August 18th at a gala dinner in Sydney.
Listen to episode 1:
The podcast was the first release from the Factual team at LiSTNR, tasked to develop narrative investigative docu-series on crime and injustice. It is led by Executive Producers Emma Lancaster and Belinda Lopez, award-winning storytellers who have created highly regarded and innovative audio documentaries and podcasts for several national and international outlets.
“The production of the series was demanding due to access challenges, the disturbing nature of the content and legal hurdles. The final product is robust in its journalism, careful in its handling of disturbing material, victim-focused and trauma-informed. The result is an eminently bingeable series for parents and true crime listeners,” said Belinda Lopez.
Disclosed: The Children in the Pictures follows Taskforce Argos, an elite Australian Police unit, as it investigates and dismantles The Love Zone (TLZ), a nefarious child exploitation network operating in the dark web. A brave original production, the eight-episode podcast series sounds the alarm into the heinous and pervasive world of online child sexual abuse and offers advice to combat it.
“To tell this story, the LiSTNR team went to great lengths. We went to court to request the removal of a longstanding suppression order that gagged the media from speaking about the specifics of this case. DNX Media, our collaborating producers, secured special judicial approval to release the police interviews with the Australian kingpin running the TLZ site. Taskforce Argos also gave remarkable access to key evidence from its investigations,” said Emma Lancaster.
“We are not interested in making true crime content in a traditional or trope-based way. We are committed to demonstrating how stories of crime reveal systemic injustices in our legal system and world. And our productions are focused on making real world impacts.”
Akhim Dev, the host and co-producer of the series, said: “Law enforcement officials in Australia and internationally are using the podcast as a training resource, the Australian e-Safety Commissioner has also acknowledged the podcast’s contribution to creating awareness about a deeply misunderstood and generally avoided topic.
“We want to sound the alarm on this issue – protecting our kids takes a global village.”
Disclosed: The Children in the Pictures is one of many exciting non-fiction and fiction projects coming out of LiSTNR’s Factual and Drama vertical, headed by Jennifer Goggin.
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