University of Wollongong lecturer wins Health Journalist of the Year Award

Oct 15, 2003

A teacher in the University of Wollongong's Master of Journalism program, Deb Richards, has won the top honour at the National Press Club's inaugural medical journalism awards night in Canberra.

Ms Richards, a casual lecturer in the postgraduate journalism program, is also a freelance writer for Australian Doctor magazine.

She was named Health Journalist of the Year for the most outstanding entry of the winners of the four major categories, having also won the award for Best News Feature/Article for reporting on health, health science or innovation in media specifically directed towards GPs.

Her winning article, titled "This is your life" (Australian Doctor, 24 January 2003), explored the difficult decisions made every day by doctors managing a limited budget and dealing with an ageing population requiring access to expensive new treatments.

Deb Richards has worked as a reporter, producer and executive producer on some of the most prestigious programs on Australian current affairs television, including ABC's Four Corners, Lateline and Media Watch programs as well as SBS-TV. She is a multi-award winner, and in 1999 she was joint winner of the Gold Walkley -- Australia's top award for excellence in journalism.

In June 2000 she was selected as one of the 150 leading women journalists in the world assembled at the IWMF conference on "Leadership in the Media" in Washington, DC.

She broke a story about the Princess of Wales (Diana) and the 'Squidgy' tapes that was headlined around the world. Ms Richards was also at the helm of Media Watch when the program broke one of the most important news stories at the time -- the story of "cash-for-comment" focusing on prominent radio talk-back hosts secretly selling program time.

Apart from her role at UOW, Ms Richards is devising several new TV projects, writes feature articles and is an occasional newsreader for ABC's NewsRadio.

For more information, contact:

deb_richards@uow.edu.au