The Walkley Foundataion an Alliance Initiative

Print Finalists

Patrick Lion • The Courier Mail

A former Cairns and Toowoomba boy, Patrick Lion joined The Courier-Mail in 2003. He began a cadetship in the business section in 2005, working on a new personal finance lift out called Money & You, and writing about Queensland companies. He moved to general news in 2006. In 2007, Patrick helped launched the new afternoon newspaper mX. Since returning to The Courier-Mail, Patrick has worked on the state political desk where he recently covered the 2009 election campaign. He has won several Queensland Media Awards including Young Journalist of the Year in 2006, Best Road Safety Report in 2007, and Best Business Report in 2008.

Julia Medew • The Age

Julia Medew is currently the health reporter for The Age. She started at The Age in 1999 as a copy kid and after completing her degree undertook a traineeship. Between 2005 and 2007, Julia was The Age's Magistrates Court Reporter. She covered several high-profile murder committals and the case of an HIV-positive man who deliberately infected other men with the virus. The case led her to a scandal that rocked the Victorian Government and resulted in the sacking of the state's Chief Health Officer. The investigation won Julia the Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for Young Journalist of the Year in 2007.

Ben Smee • The Herald (Newcastle)

Ben Smee was born and grew up in Newcastle and is currently the Port Stephens reporter at the Newcastle Herald. After graduating from the University of Newcastle, Ben was offered a cadetship with the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. In 2007, Ben moved to the Newcastle Herald, where he worked mostly as a police reporter. In 2008, Ben won a Northern NSW Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism for a series on late-night violence in Newcastle that investigated the impact of the drug ice and the increasing number of glassing incidents occurring in the city.

Radio Finalists

Michael Atkin • ABC/Triple J Radio

From 2004 to April 2009, Michael Atkin worked as a reporter on triple j radio's Hack program. Michael graduated from the University of Technology Sydney in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism). Michael was named Best Undergraduate Reporter in 2005. Michael has worked for a range of media organisations: ABC, SBS, The Australian, Next Media and community radio station, 2SER. In mid 2009, Michael resigned from triple j to relocate to India. He is currently freelancing, attempting to learn Hindi and exploring South Asia. In 2008, Michael was named Young Australian Radio Journalist of the Year, by the Walkley Foundation.

Fiona Ellis-Jones • ABC NewsRadio

Fiona Ellis-Jones is a journalist and producer with ABC NewsRadio and also hosts the network's weekly current affairs program Out of Africa. Fiona completed a degree in broadcast journalism from Charles Sturt University Bathurst in 2006, where she held the Channel Nine scholarship. She is now in the process of completing a Master of International Relations. Fiona has worked on a number of Nine programs including the Today Show, weekly news and Sunday news. In 2004, Fiona was appointed World Vision's NSW Youth Ambassador. She has volunteered in Tanzania, Kenya, Fiji and India.

Ryan Sheales • ABC Radio

In late 2008, Ryan Sheales was appointed ABC Radio Melbourne's Victorian political reporter. Ryan graduated from RMIT University in 2004 and while studying, worked at community broadcasters SYN FM and RMITV, and as an editorial assistant at the Herald Sun. Ryan has worked for the ABC in different parts of country Victoria over a period of three years, writing and presenting local bulletins and providing content for local programs. He moved to the ABC's Melbourne newsroom in 2007 and is also currently the Deputy President of the Victorian Parliamentary Press Gallery.

Television Finalists

Yaara Bou Melhem • SBS

Yaara is currently a videojournalist for SBS Television's national indigenous current affairs program, Living Black. Yaara has worked as a production assistant for the SBS news desk and then as SBS Insight's online producer. She soon took on a cadetship with SBS before joining World News Australia. In 2008, Yaara reported and filmed stories in the Middle East for Dateline and World News Australia. She looked at women who were imprisoned by Jordanian authorities to protect them from their families who wanted to kill them in honour killings. Yaara also followed a Palestinian circus as it travelled through the West Bank's complex checkpoint system reporting on the impact of the Israeli barrier on daily Palestinian life.

Yalda Hakim • SBS

As a reporter for SBS Television News, Yalda Hakim has a passion for video journalism, one that has taken her to some of the most remote regions of Australia. Prior to working for SBS, she worked as a freelance translator and researcher for the ABC's Foreign Correspondent and Lateline. Yalda has covered stories on Aboriginal affairs, including the Howard Government's Northern Territory Intervention, and also filmed in war-torn Afghanistan for almost a month. She investigated the daily lives of people seven years since the country was invaded and cites it as a life changing experience. Yalda's coverage of the increasing problem of drug addiction in Afghanistan was shown to President Karzai's government, which led to the closure of Kabul's largest drug den.

Tom Steinfort • Channel Nine

Tom Steinfort has been working at Channel Nine in his hometown of Melbourne for the past two-and-a-half years. Tom graduated from university and landed a job with Nine News covering big stories like the Kerang rail disaster and the resignation of Steve Bracks. In 2008, Tom's reporting was recognised with the Melbourne Press Club's Quill Award for the Young Journalist of the Year. Undoubtedly the biggest story of his career came earlier this year when Victoria was decimated by the Black Saturday bushfires.

Online Finalists

Winsome Denyer • abc.net.au

Winsome Denyer started at 630 ABC Radio North Queensland as the online producer in July 2007. She was born in Victoria and completed a double degree of Journalism and French at James Cook University where she was awarded a University Medal. Winsome has covered everything from floods (Mackay, Ingham, Townsville) to the discovery of ancient aboriginal breast plates. Her current position has given her the opportunity to work as a multimedia journalist.

Nic MacBean • abc.net.au

Nic studied journalism and history at the University of Queensland while working part-time in the Austereo newsroom and newsreading with community radio. Just before graduating he got his foot in the door of the ABC with an internship at the national online newsroom in Brisbane. In two years with ABC News Online he has worked in a variety of roles in news reporting, sport and on the production desk. Highlights include working through the night during the Beijing Olympics and the enormous challenge of covering the Victorian bushfires.

Laura Parker • Gamespot.com.au

Laura joined GameSpot AU in July 2008 as news features writer. A former freelance journalist who dreamed of becoming an archaeologist since playing Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Laura studied journalism at The University of Sydney. After university Laura worked as a night-shift police reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald. Laura moved on to writing news, technology and features for the Sydney Morning Herald while continuing to freelance for publications including The Guardian, Studio Magazines, Filmink magazine, 3D World and Frankie. Laura has also worked in radio as a producer for Radio 2UE, a radio presenter for 2RDJ FM and a radio reporter for fBi.

Photography Finalists

Sandie Bertrand • The West Australian

Sandie Bertrand is a photographer for The West Australian. Born in Paris, France, she achieved her advanced diploma of photography at Perth TAFE. In 2006, she was awarded the inaugural Ewan Robinson Perpetual Memorial Award. During her tertiary studies she worked abroad at the A.P.R.H. (a photographic agency) and at the Moulin Rouge as a photographer in Paris. Sandie then won numerous awards in the Ilford Photographic Competition for tertiary students. In 2007, she started at The West Australian newspaper working as a photographic journalist.

James Brickwood • The Sydney Morning Herald

James Brickwood is currently a staff photographer on The Sun Herald, having worked for Fairfax since 2003. James specialises in the study of underground and youth sub-cultures across the country, from the social implications of designer drugs and alcohol on high school students to the evolving musical genres emanating from industrial abandonment and the newly arrived art of Parkour. His work has received many accolades and has been exhibitied wildley. James was also a finalist in the photography category of the Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards in 2008.

Sam Mooy • The Australian

Sam Mooy picked up a camera and began his photographic career at age 15 in Tamworth, New South Wales. He is currently posted in the Sydney bureau of The Australian. Sam worked various photographic jobs throughout high school before beginning a brief stint as a cadet journalist in Armidale, NSW. At the age of 18, Sam worked as a freelance photographer contributing to The Courier newspapers and the Australian Associated Press. Three years later, Sam was employed by The Australian. He worked out of the Adelaide bureau, a one man photographic position, becoming perhaps the youngest photographer to attain a bureau position. Sam was also a finalist in the 2008 Young Australian Journalist of the Year awards