Three journalists with links to RMIT University’s School of Media and Communication have achieved national recognition for excellence in journalism at the 2009 Walkley Awards.

Screen and Media student Fouad Hady joined Journalism alumni Jon Burton and Melinda Marshall in receiving the International Journalism and Best Online Journalism awards respectively last week.

Mr Hady’s award-winning report, City of Widows, was produced for SBS TV’s Dateline series this year, presenting a view of Iraqi life often neglected through the perspective of western media.

The report focused on the Baghdadi suburb of Al Rashad, home of militant cleric Moqtada Al Sadr.

During his time in Al Rashad, Mr Hady interviewed and visited the homes of Al Sadr supporters before stumbling upon a former women’s prison from the Saddam Hussein era which had been turned into makeshift housing for the impoverished community.

The Walkley awards judging panel made special note of Mr Hady’s camerawork and narration in the piece, citing it as “very moving and outside the usual journalism template”.

Mr Burton and Ms Marshall worked collaboratively with the Maroondah Leader on their award-winning piece, Feeling the Strain – an online news feature about the living conditions of people within poorer areas of Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs.

The report captured the issues, challenges and shortcomings of Victoria’s mental health system using different online techniques including picture essays, audio interviews and written testimonies.

Judges for the award referred to the originality of the piece as well as the resourcefulness of the staff, stating the Leader had uncovered “a story that would otherwise not have been told”.

Mr Burton, Group Online Editor at Leader News, is also a former RMIT lecturer and acted as program director in 2005-2006.

Earlier in 2009 he and Leader won the Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for Best Online News Report, and the Pacific Area Newspaper Association award for Best Online Story. He and Leader were also finalists for the UN Media Awards in Online Journalism.

Ms Marshall graduated in 2005 from the graduate diploma in journalism. She was part of the team at the Maroondah Leader that won the Walkley.

（www.eduwo.com, Anna）