Recent and current Charles Sturt University (CSU) journalism students have been announced as finalists for this year’s Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards.

 

Current students Ms Siobhan Fogarty and Mr Darcy Hay from the CSU the School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst are two of the three national finalists in the Student Journalist of the Year category.

 

Ms Fogarty was nominated for her television story ‘Domestic violence in the Central West of New South Wales’, and Mr Hay, who is studying with CSU from Geraldton in Western Australia, for his print story, ‘Drug rehabilitation centre rejected by rural community’, published in the Geraldton Guardian and the Midwest Times.

 

“It is a real privilege and honour to be a finalist in the 2013 Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards,” Ms Fogarty said. “I want to thank my lecturers who have been so supportive and flexible with my timetable while I pursued and compiled this important story. Charles Sturt University has given me a solid grounding in the discipline and craft of TV news reporting, and being a finalist for a Walkley Award will assist my future career when I graduate at the end of this year.”

 

Mr Harry Dillon, CSU journalism lecturer, said of Ms Fogarty’s story, “Realising that she needed to do something exceptional to make an impression in these awards, Siobahn specifically covered domestic violence because it isn't covered much in mainstream media. The outcome is impressive in terms of on-the-spot coverage of police attending scenes of domestic violence and interviews with the people involved. Apart from the journalistic skills entailed, the piece required a lot of sensitive interaction with people in difficult situations.”

 

CSU alumnus Ms Natalie Whiting, presently a radio news journalist with ABC 2CR in Orange/central west, is a finalist in the Radio/Audio category, and alumnus Ms Miranda Grant is a finalist in the Television/Video Journalism category for her ABC Open video story ‘Separated: echoes of forced adoption’.

 

The Walkley Awards are considered the most prestigious journalism awards in Australia. The Young Journalist of the Year category is open to all Australian journalists aged 26 and under as at Friday 26 April 2013. All finalists were chosen on the basis of journalistic excellence in the fundamentals of the craft, as well as their ability to present distinctive and original journalism that ‘pushes the boundaries of the profession’.