Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Press freedom report

The MEAA is looking for input for its 2006 Press Freedom Report. Submissions must be in by the end of February 2006. The inaugural 2005 Press Freedom Report can be downloaded here.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

New US journalism program

The US State Department has started a new program for up to 100 journalists a year to visit and study in the USA. It is called the Edward R. Murrow Journalism Program is specifically for journalists, and entries are open with the first takers expected in the USA in April.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Media Report

The Media Report - the last for the year - reviewed 2005 and looked ahead to 2006 with some interesting comments by Mark Day and Chris Nash. Transcript and audio download are up. During the next few weeks Media Report will be replaying some of the highlight programs of 2005. The Media Report proper resumes on Thursday 26 January 2006.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Melbourne lecture

Premier of Queensland Peter Beattie presents the University of Melbourne AN Smith Memorial Lecture in Journalism Power Without Responsibility - Who Guards the Guardians? at the University of Melbourne at 6 pm this evening. Mr Beattie will discuss whether the principles of freedom of information should be extended to journalists, so that the media can be held to the same tests of honesty as other public institutions. The lecture is free and open to the public but bookings are required.

16/12/2005 The full text and an audio recording are now available.

Friday, December 09, 2005

WPI fellowships

Applications for the World Press Institute Fellowships close at the end of the month, 31 December 2005. This program is for mid-career journalists and is a four month trip to and around the United States.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Telstra Rural Media Awards (SA)

Winners of these state awards will be named at a Rural Media Association of South Australia lunch in Adelaide today.

Human rights awards

Winners of HREOC’s Human Rights Medal and Awards which includes awards for print, radio and TV reporting, will be announced at a luncheon in Sydney today.
The winners are listed here.

Walkley magazine

Issue 36 the December 2005/January 2006 edition of the Walkley Magazine is out. It is available for $9.95 from MEAA offices. This one has the full details, with pictures, of the Walkley Award winners, and some articles on food and wine reporting.

Law seminar

Yesterday and today Law Update, a two day seminar at Bond University on the Gold Coast presented by journalism Professor Mark Pearson author of The Journalist’s Guide to Media Law.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Photo Contest

Entries for the 2006 World Press Photo Contest are open now and close on 12 January. The best single photo and the best series of photos in 10 categories receive Golden Eye Awards, and prizes of $2,300 plus a trip to Amsterdam. From these the jury selects a single World Press Photo of the Year that wins $15,600. Australians do well in this contest.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Ossie Awards

Te Waha Nui New Zealand's Auckland University of Technology journalism newspaper, has won this year's Ossie Award for best student publication (any medium) in Australia, NZ and the Pacific. The newspaper was edited this semester by Nicholas Moody and the course is led by AUT's David Robie and Allan Lee.

Other awards announced at the JEA conference on the Gold Coast last night:

Best print news story: Phil Han (University of Technology, Sydney)
Best radio news story: Sophie Gyles (UTS)
Best TV news story: Jonathan Peeris and Saane Neilsen (RMIT)
Best print feature (undergraduate): Michael Atkin (UTS)
Best print feature (postgraduate): David Swift (Macleay College)
Best photojournalism: Christina Hermanstad (UTS)
Best radio current affairs (undergraduate): Divine Word University (PNG)
Best TV current affairs (undergraduate): Barry Hartono and Daniel Gerich (Griffith University)
Best broadcast current affairs (postgraduate): Barnaby Howarth (UTS)
Best story by an international student: Laura Tenret (University of Western Sydney)
Hunter Institute Response Ability Prize: Melanie Lees (University of Western Sydney)

Digital Media Festival

The Digital Media Festival - exhibition and conference - is on at the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre today 6 - 8 December 2005. AVID is showing some of its HDV news systems at the Exhibition, and at the Conference the SMH’s Tim Clayton is speaking about photo journalism in the digital age at noon tomorrow.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Bell Awards

The Australian Business and Specialist Publishers Bell Awards came out last week. The full list of winners and runners up is in the latest edition of Publisher available online here.
Awards of particular interest include -
  • Magazine of the Year Universal Magazine’s Dirt Action.
Awards to journalists were -

Human Rights Awards finalists

HREOC has published the list of finalists for the 2005 Human Rights Awards. The winners will be announced on Friday.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

IFJ meeting

The Executive Committee of the International Federation of Journalists meets in Sydney today and tomorrow, hosted by MEAA and IFJ Asia-Pacific.