Judge Announcement: Amnesty International Australia Media Awards 2021

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She is an academic, a lawyer, an award-winning writer and an award winning filmmaker. She is Associate Dean (Indigenous Research) at the University of Technology Sydney and the Director of Research at the Jumbunna Institute. Larissa is the Chair of the Cathy Freeman Foundation, a Trustee of the Australian Museum, a board member of the Sydney Community Fund and a member of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. She is also the host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio National and the ABC local radio network. Her latest novel, After Story, is published by UQP.

Miriam Corowa is a broadcaster, reporter, presenter and producer who has worked in the media since 2000. Pairing an avid interest in Indigenous affairs with general news production, she has worked at both the Special Broadcasting Service and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation across programmes such as World News Australia, Message Stick and currently presents and reports for the ABC’s News Channel. Miriam co-hosted the Weekend Breakfast programme, on the ABC News Channel, from its’ inception in February 2012 until January 2018, and continues to enjoy presenting and reporting for the channel. More recently, Miriam has added hosting the Regional News programme on the ABC News Channel since its’ launch in July 2020. Miriam is a Bundjalung woman, calling the far north coast of New South Wales home.

Jodan Perry is an Executive Producer at NITV News & Current Affairs, and host of Over the Black Dot.

Charis Chang has been a reporter for more than 10 years, beginning her career in newspapers before heading online. In a former life, she was a paralegal and got her start in journalism through covering council meetings and other news for local newspapers in regional NSW, Melbourne, and Sydney including the Manly Daily. She has reported extensively on the environment and climate change, as well as health issues including coronavirus, and has also begun tackling data journalism. Highlights of her career include interviewing prime ministers and covering several federal elections. In 2019, she travelled with the press pack during the election campaign. She has also been involved in campaigns on mental health, organ donation and recycling.

Lisa Davies is the Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. Lisa began her career at the national newswire AAP, and has also worked for the UK’s Press Association in London and The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney. Lisa joined Fairfax Media in early 2012. She has held several senior reporting and editing roles including Deputy Editor, Investigations Editor and Justice Editor. In 2016 she was also Fairfax Media’s Federal Election Editor. Lisa has had a particular focus on crime and court reporting in her career, including travelling to South Africa to cover the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, and publishing a book about the inspiring recovery of Sydney bashing victim, Lauren Huxley.

Josh Butler is political editor with The New Daily, based in the federal parliamentary press gallery in Canberra. He covers federal politics, COVID, inequality and social media. Josh has previously worked with Network 10 and the Huffington Post.

Martin has worked in and around radio broadcasting for over 20 years. After relocating to Sydney from New Zealand he spent a long period with the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, before joining 2SER 107.3 as Managing Director in 2019. He enjoys the ever-changing atmosphere and vitality of community broadcasting and is a strong believer in the role it plays in fostering meaningful connections, upskilling and empowering volunteers, and elevating the voices of those underrepresented in the mainstream.

ABC Radio broadcaster Alex Barwick is the Drive Presenter in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. She has over 20 years experience in journalism and communications, working with the national broadcaster, freelancing and in the community development sector both in Australia and overseas.

Fauziah Ibrahim anchors ABC TV’s flagship Weekend Breakfast programme and has over twenty years’ experience of reporting and anchoring for international broadcasters including Al Jazeera, CNBC and the BBC. Fauziah has also produced various long-form documentaries and regularly hosts various events and festivals.

Lindy Kerin is part of the all Indigenous editorial team at NITV. She is currently the Executive Editor of News and Current Affairs. Lindy worked in strategic communications at the Australian Human Rights Commission with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO and was Assistant Director of Media and Communications at the Disability Royal Commission. Previously, she worked with the national broadcaster over 19 years in news and current affairs including the flag ship radio current affairs programs AM, PM and The World Today.

Stela Todorovic is a Political Reporter with Network 10 and host of the ‘Women of the House’ podcast, based in the Press Gallery at Parliament House. Fleeing the war in Bosnia, Stela moved to Western Sydney with her mum and dad at the age of 4. As a kid she never understood why she always had to explain to her friends where Bosnia was or what had happened there. So, from a young age she vowed to use storytelling to help give others a voice and bring about change. Stela has always cared about the social issues plaguing low income and migrant communities in Australia.

Jeff Darmanin is a media industry professional with over 30 years experience as a Photojournalist & Picture Editor working for News Corp. Jeff covered major events in Australia and around the globe and had the privilege of shooting portrait sessions with some of the world’s most famous and influential people. The coverage of news through images has the ability to raise awareness and emotion like no other medium and Jeff is very proud of his association with this industry. During his time as Pictorial Editor and Director of Photography and Video Jeff was the leader of a large team of Photojournalists and Picture Editors responsible for the gathering of editorial imagery around the country. Jeff then led the picture desk at Diimex. The Digital Image Exchange/ Diimex has been designed to tackle many of the issues plaguing the Photographic and Publishing industry. In 2016 Jeff re joined New Corp as the Sunday Telegraph Picture Editor and the role has now expanded to Head of Vision, Daily & Sunday Telegraph, Picture Editor at The Saturday & Sunday Telegraphs.

Nick Moir is Chief Photographer at The Sydney Morning Herald. He has been recognised both nationally and internationally for his work on severe weather , bushfires and other extreme environmental phenomena. He has covered events such as the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia , several US tornado seasons and most major bushfire seasons in NSW. He has four children and lives in Newport with his partner Linda.

Sylvia Liber has been a passionate visual storyteller at the Illawarra Mercury for over twenty years. As a regional photojournalist, her work days are spent covering a variety of assignments from a simple weather photo to the extremes of the human emotions. To shooting with compassion and care to at times having to shoot with courage and no fear. In recent years, Sylvia has been shooting underwater portraits and is now addicted. It’s capturing these raw and diverse moments that inspire her every day. Some of her most rewarding accolades include winning five Walkley Awards.

Cathy Wilcox, born in 1963, is an Australian cartoonist who lives and works in Sydney. She studied at Sydney College of the Arts then lived in Paris, illustrating English language publications, from 1985-87. She began drawing regularly for the Sydney Morning Herald in 1989. She is a keen observer of society and politics, and has won many awards for her work including three Walkley Awards, several Stanley Awards, the Museum of Australian Democracy’s Political Cartoonist of the Year 2016 and 2020 and a Kennedy Award in 2017. She has illustrated numerous picture books, theatre productions and done a TEDx talk. She is president of the Australian Cartoonists Association, a member MEAA and of Cartooning For Peace, and continues to draw editorial cartoons for Nine Media in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

I became a cartoonist quite accidentally. Prior to this incarnation, I studied politics at the Australian National University, travelled extensively and worked in overseas aid and human rights. Finding myself made redundant in late 1996, I despaired for a bit (as you do) then, with a bit of hassling from friends who’d been receiving my handmade birthday cards for years, embraced the personal reinvention zeitgeist and took up the pen on a full-time basis in 1997. Since then, my work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Bulletin, The Chaser, Eureka Street and New Matilda. My political cartoons have popped up regularly in the National Museum’s annual Behind the Lines exhibition and Scribe’s yearly Best Australian Political Cartoons anthologies (including the cover of the 2009 edition). I’ve also illustrated loads of books for just about every publisher, designed cards for the Ink Group and t-shirts for Mambo.

Jon Kudelka has been working as a political cartoonist for thirty years. He was a long time contributor for The Australian and is currently drawing for The Saturday Paper and The Hobart Mercury. He’s won two Walkley awards for political cartooning and runs an art gallery in Hobart.