Donna Chisholm

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

Career Chisholm was the first female chief reporter at the Auckland Star newspaper. Former New Zealand Listener editor Jenny Wheeler has called her the most "outstanding health reporter New Zealand's ever seen." 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. Dougherty was subsequently exonerated and awarded $868,728 in compensation. Chisholm's six-year investigation was dramatised in the 2009 Television New Zealand film Until Proven Innocent, and recounted in the 2017 book A Moral Truth: 150 years of investigative journalism in New Zealand by James Hollings.

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

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. 2004: New Zealand Qantas Media Awards Newspaper Feature Writer of the Year 2011: Canon Media Awards Magazine Feature Writer of the Year: the Helen Paske Trophy 2016: Canon Media Awards Science and Technology Feature Writing award 2017: Outstanding achievement award at the 2017 Voyager Media Awards

In the 2026 New Year Honours, Chisholm was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to journalism.