The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review are among the recipients of the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas grants program to support quality journalism.
With the grant, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age will employ an Indigenous journalist and trainee photographer to work with reporters in the newsroom on a series of news stories, features and multimedia projects.
The Herald Editor, Lisa Davies, and The Age Editor, Alex Lavelle, said the grant would put Indigenous voices at the centre of the papers’ coverage of Indigenous issues.
“Indigenous voices have been barely heard in the media for far too long, and industry diversity has suffered as a result,” Davies said. “The Herald and Age want to change that – this project is only the beginning.”
The reporter and the photographer will initially be hired for a 12-month period for in-depth reporting and contextualisation of Indigenous life and culture, with the aim of employing them full-time thereafter.
“The journalist and visual journalist we are hiring will bring their unique perspective to their reporting, educating and engaging our readers with a diverse range of news, features and audio-visual content,” Davies said.
Lavelle added: “These journalists will also work with some of the best journalists in the country from the Herald and Age newsrooms, allowing for broad newsroom collaboration and learning on all sides.”
The Herald and The Age’s recruitment of Indigenous journalists follows their campaign, launched in May, to support the push for an Indigenous voice in federal parliament.
Applications for the Indigenous journalist and photographer roles are open until late July.
Meanwhile, The Australian Financial Review will use its grant to reopen a South-East Asia bureau in Jakarta that will provide deeper coverage of the major economic, trade, business and security issues in Indonesia and the region.
