Monash students star at Ossie Awards
Corinna Hente

Monash University students have starred in the Ossie Awards for student journalism, winning five categories and being highly commended in three.

This was the strongest performance by students at any institution in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region. The Ossie Awards is open to students at more than 25 Australian universities.

Congratulations to all of them for their excellent work.

“What a fantastic outcome for our talented students and their dedicated and passionate teachers and mentors,”  Dr Johan Lidberg, acting head of journalism, said.

“I’m particularly pleased that we won in both the journalism practice categories and one of the essay prizes in journalism studies.
 
“It shows the depth and breadth of the journalism program at Monash. It’s a very proud day for Monash journalism and the School of Media, Film and Journalism. Congratulations to all involved.”
 

THE WINNERS

Tess Ikonomou won Best Text-Based Story by an Undergraduate Student award for her story Monash University academic denied permanent residency because of autistic son, which was published in The Age. 

Sally Hayles won Best Video Story by an Undergraduate or Postgraduate Student over 2 minutes with her story on the Mekong, Fishing for the future, which was published on Mojo Correspondent and mojonews.com.au.

Mikaela Day and Alice Pohlner won the Best Investigative Journalism award for their piece Domestic Violence in Cambodia – Part One: The Rural Challenge, published on Mojo Correspondent and mojonews.com.au.

Lindsey Green and Kerryn Hildebrand won the Mindframe for Journalism Education Prize for Mental Health Reporting for their radio piece Harrowing tales of reporting on trauma, a Generation J podcast done for mojonews.com.au.

Cameron Scott won The Australian Press Council Postgraduate Prize for an essay on the topic of press freedom or media ethics. In this category, Koren Harvey was highly commended.

Angus Smith was highly commended in the Sally A. White Prize for Investigative Journalism category. He was also highly commended in the category of Best Text-based story by a Postgraduate Student, for his story To catch a thief: who stole Picasso’s Weeping Woman, published on Crikey.