A Sydney Macleay College student has won an all expenses paid scholarship to intern at the Centre for Investigative Reporting in California.
Journalism degree student Thea Carley’s investigative feature on an international exploration of the death penalty was selected as the winner from a pool of 18 entries.
Ms Carley told The Newsroom she was excited to win the two-week scholarship.
“I am interested in universal issues that have global appeal,” she said.
Her article, Crime and Punishment: the Search for Humanity was published by The Newsroom while Bali Nine drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were awaiting execution in Indonesia. The pair was executed by a firing squad in April this year.
Head of news content at the ABC, Gaven Morris, was the final judge in the competition and said the professionalism of Ms Carley’s piece “would not be out of place if published as a feature in a national broadsheet or news magazine”.
“Displaying a passion for exposing an important issue to the public’s consciousness is the essence of investigative journalism,” he said.
“This piece seeks to complete the understanding of readers on an issue that was very topical at the time of writing. It is backed by excellent research, presented with fact boxes and a breakout diagram that provides a thorough background and some chilling and graphic examples.”
The annual scholarship, now in its second year, was open to every Macleay journalism student in Sydney and Melbourne.
The entry requirements included submitting a 1500-word piece of writing in news or features style which also included photographs or videos.
Alexandra Lee, the first winner of this competition, is currently interning at CNN in Hong Kong. –Ashleigh Stevenson
Photo by Jessica Heckley
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