Media Release: Award-winning Australian journalists to share their craft in China
24 October 2016
Australia’s Ambassador to China Ms Jan Adams today announces three of Australia’s most respected journalists will come to China to lead a series of university masterclasses with young Chinese journalists.
The Walkley Foundation China Exchange: The Craft of Journalism in a Global Context (30 October – 5 November) is an initiative of the Australian Embassy Beijing and The Walkley Foundation in partnership with the All-China Journalists Association, the peak national body for journalism in China.
Ms Adams believes this is an exciting opportunity for China’s future opinion-shapers to understand the depth and quality of journalism practices in Australia, and be inspired to develop their own craft.
Ms Adams said, “this significant partnership between The Walkley Foundation and the All-China Journalists Association will connect some of China’s brightest young minds with the best journalistic talent in Australia and build awareness of excellence in Australian journalism with new audiences”.
Caro Meldrum-Hanna (Four Corners, ABC TV); Steve Pennells (The West Australian) and Trent Dalton (The Weekend Australian Magazine) will visit Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai where they will lead masterclasses exploring ways of storytelling in a global context.
“With experience reporting on a range of subjects, from international conflicts and natural disasters, to social and community issues, these three journalists are at the top of their field. Their work has been recognised internationally, and we are proud to be bringing them to China for this important initiative”, Ms Adams added.
The Walkley Foundation CEO Ms Jacqui Park said, “the Walkley Awards have been benchmarking excellence in journalism since 1956. We are incredibly proud to share the stories with China's next generation of storytellers and journalists with this tour of our three Walkley winning journalists. And we look forward to learning more about China and building lasting relations with the journalism community”.
All China-Journalists Association International Liaison Department Deputy Director, Mr Fang Xinjian said, “media exchanges are an important way to increase mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of our two countries, and thus promote bilateral relations.”
“The All-China Journalists Association is pleased to organise this program between Walkley Award-winning journalists, young Chinese journalists and journalism school students, in partnership with The Walkley Foundation and the Australian Embassy. I hope the Australian journalists can learn about Chinese journalism, and young journalists here can enhance their international reporting skills through the program. We wish the program great success!” he continued.
Focused on skills sharing, critical thinking and ideas exchange, the journalists will connect with students of journalism in some of China's top-ranked universities, including Renmin University of China, Jinan University and Fudan University.
The masterclasses program will be complemented by additional speaking engagements open to young professionals and the general public.
As a platform for the exchange of ideas and expertise, the program’s long-term aim is to improve the quantity and quality of reporting on Australia in China, and develop new networks, audiences and markets for Australian journalists.
ENDS
The Walkley Foundation China Exchange: The Craft of Journalism in a Global Context is organised by The Walkley Foundation and Australian Embassy Beijing, in partnership with the All-China Journalists Association and supported by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia-China Council of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Enquiries:
Joanna Bayndrian, Senior Public Affairs & Culture Officer, Australian Embassy Beijing
[email protected] +86 139 1082 2594 / +86 -10-5140 4297 (English)
Liu Ting, Senior Public Affairs & Culture Officer, Australian Embassy, Beijing
[email protected] +86 135 0109 9349 / +86 10-5140-247 (Chinese)
About the Journalists:
Trent Dalton writes for the award-winning The Weekend Australian Magazine on The Australian newspaper. A former assistant editor of The Courier-Mail, he has won two Walkley Awards for excellence in journalism, been a four-time winner of the national News Awards Feature Journalist of the Year Award, and was named Queensland Journalist of the Year at the 2011 Clarion Awards for excellence in Queensland media. His journalism has twice been nominated for a United Nations of Australia Media Peace Award. In both 2014 and 2013, he was named Best Feature journalist at the annual Kennedy Awards for excellence in NSW journalism.
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aro Meldrum-Hanna is a Walkley Award winning reporter with ABC TV’s Four Corners program. Prior to joining Four Corners in 2014, Caro reported for the ABC’s nightly current affairs program, 7:30 from 2011 – 2013, where she was nominated for six Walkley Awards, winning two. In 2014 Caro was also nominated for the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Current Affairs Report for her exclusive series of reports on the sports supplements saga involving several NRL and AFL clubs. In 2015 Caro won the Gold Walkley Award and was named NSW Journalist of the Year by the Kennedy Foundation.
Steve Pennells is a five-time Walkley Award winner who also took out the coveted Gold Walkley in 2012. He works for The West Australian as the paper’s Sydney-based chief writer, a roving brief which has seen him on assignment across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. But he is probably better known for his two-year court battle against Gina Rinehart, who tried to force him to reveal the sources behind his award—winning series which exposed her multi-billion dollar battle with her children. He also works as an occasional guest reporter on Channel Seven’s Sunday Night.
About the Walkley Foundation:
The Walkley Foundation is at the very heart of the Australian media. It has been established to promote excellence in journalism in all its forms including visual arts, literature, film, video, television, photography, documentary and radio.
A champion of innovation and a respected thought leader, the Walkley Foundation generates vital discussion on the future of our rapidly changing industry and encourages journalism that enriches our communities.
The Walkley Foundation celebrates and encourages excellence in Australian journalism, telling the stories of our nation and strengthening our democracy.
The well-known Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism, recognise and reward superlative Australian journalism. The awards’ association with the best in corporate Australia goes back to their inception in 1956 by Sir William Gaston Walkley, founder of Ampol Petroleum.
The award-winning stories, photographs and artwork have chronicled Australia’s people and events for nearly 60 years. To continue this crucial work, the Walkley Foundation, a non-profit company, needs the support of those like Bill Walkley who want to be associated with the best.
The Walkley Foundation hosts an exciting, year-round program of industry and public events, innovation showcases, training sessions and awards to promote excellence in journalism. It publishes The Walkley Magazine, Australia’s leading media industry publication.
About the All-China Journalists Association:
All-China Journalists Association (ACJA) is a national non-governmental organisation composed of press institutions at a national level, journalists associations of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, journalists associations of special trades, and major institutions engaged in journalism education and research.
As a non-governmental organisation well known in press circles both at home and abroad, ACJA has 216 institutional members including local and professional journalists associations, which embraces a total of more than 1,000,000 people engaged in journalism.
ACJA carries out the nation-wide journalism awards and is responsible for safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of journalists. ACJA has so far, in various forms, established exchanges and cooperative relations with press institutions of more than 100 countries across the world. It sponsors bilateral and multilateral exchanges with foreign press institutions, sends Chinese press delegations abroad and receives foreign journalists, provides services to foreign correspondents stationed in Beijing such as arranging reportage trips, holding press conferences, news release sessions, international seminars and workshops, and organizing visits and various recreational activities; and participating in activities arranged by international journalists organizations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.