12 March 2011

Win-win from growth in Australian award prizes

Rewarding excellence in rural journalism with professional development opportunities supported through corporate partnerships has proved to be a successful strategy for the Australian Council of Agricultural Journalists and its affiliated state clubs.

ACAJ president Liz Kellaway said five outstanding rural journalists will be sponsored to attend the September 2011 IFAJ Congress in Canada through an expansion of the prestigious Australian rural media awards program, including major new prizes worth $10,000, and support of state clubs.

Winners of the John Deere Australian Star Prize for Rural Writing and the Rabobank Australian Star Prize for Rural Broadcasting will attend the international congress, while global animal nutrition company Alltech continues to support its young leaders’ award which comes with a congress trip.

Additionally, for the past five years New South Wales Farm Writers has sponsored a journalist to attend congress, and the Rural Press Club of Queensland now runs an excellence award with the prize being an IFAJ congress trip.

“We are delighted to foster these exciting opportunity for professional development in 2011 as part of our ongoing commitment to encouraging excellence in rural journalism,” Ms Harfull said.

“Thanks to the generosity of our Star Prize award sponsors John Deere and Rabobank, we are raising the profile of rural journalism, the state-based rural media clubs and the national umbrella body the Australian Council of Agricultural Journalists.”

Ms Harfull said the print and broadcast award winners would benefit from the opportunity to explore and report on agriculture in another country, work alongside rural journalists and communicators from around the world and build valuable professional networks.

The suite of Star Prize awards also incorporates the Australian Star Prize for Rural Photography, with categories for the best people, production and landscape/nature photos.

The winner of the writing prize, all three category winners of the photo award, and categories for radio, television and on-line journalism in the broadcast award will represent Australia internationally in the IFAJ Star Prize awards, which are announced during the IFAJ congress.

Winners of the prizes will be finalised in coming months to enable recipients to make arrangements to attend the IFAJ congress at Ontario, Canada on September 14-18.

For more information on the IFAJ congress, visit www.ifaj2011.com