Nicomedia

The Australian’s Media Diary blogged about Dateline journalist Sophie McNeill winning YEN magazine’s Young Woman of the Year award.

McNeill is currently based in Lebanon and her work as a video journalist is a great encouragement for other (aspiring) journalists to take action and find stories rather than maintaining a passive outlook.

Here is a post McNeill wrote for the Dateline blog in May 2008, after visiting Iraq and Kurdistan.

Not because I don’t admire the show.

Tonight’s guests have Denton’s measure. He is famous for coaxing skeletons out of the closet. I’d say the celebrities invited on the show stay up late the night before practising their secrets in front of the mirror. I think it is great that Denton is getting out at the top of his game.

Tim Minchin made a cheeky mock confession of adultery. Chris Masters pinpointed those moments of honesty as the core of Denton’s passion for interviewing.

It was brilliant to see footage from Masters’ old stories, ten and 20 years old - about the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, corruption in QLD and genocide in Rwanda. Masters’ piece-to-camera in Rwanda shown tonight is a classic example of frank and moving journalism that can push an audience along to at least a small understanding of a terrible event that feels like a world away from Australia.

Chris Masters speaking with Richard Fydler on the Convesation Hour