Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday (Dec 15) announced that the two journalists namely Auskar Surbakti, an Australian reporter with the Australia Network, and Ms Devianti Faridz, an Indonesian TV Producer for Metro TV, had won the 2011 Elizabeth O`Neill Journalism Award.
"This award is in memory of Liz O`Neill, the Public Affairs Counselor at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta who died tragically on duty on March 7, 2007 in a plane crash in Yogyakarta, Indonesia," Rudd said.
Auskar Surbakti and Devianti Faridz will spend up to three weeks in the other`s country meeting government officials, academics, industry representatives, non-government organizations and community leaders, to build a stronger understanding and appreciation of the issues facing contemporary Indonesia and Australia.
"Each year I am impressed by the quality of the winners. By encouraging excellence this Award reflects Ms O`Neill`s own professionalism and commitment to furthering relations between Australia and Indonesia," Rudd noted.
Formerly a reporter with SBS, Surbakti is a journalist with the Australia Network in Melbourne. Surbakti will explore issues of Indonesia`s future leadership; Australian aid in Indonesia; and Indonesian environmental policy and issues, including the connections between Indonesia and Australia through carbon emissions pricing.
Devianti is an experienced reporter, anchor and producer with Metro TV. She is currently the producer of a daily English news program called "After Hours".
She will explore Australian disaster management programs; asylum seeker issues; Australia`s counter-terrorism efforts; and the growing demand for Islamic schools in Australia.
The Elizabeth O`Neill Journalism Award is sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australia-Indonesia Institute and is conferred annually on one Australian and one Indonesian journalist. It is open to print, radio, television and internet journalists.(*)
O001/F001
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
