RWNZ Journalism Award winners 2017

Wellington-based Radio New Zealand rural journalist, Alexa Cook, has won the inaugural Rural Women New Zealand Rural Connectivity Award at the 2017 awards of the New Zealand Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators.

The Rural Connectivity Award was initiated by Rural Women New Zealand to recognise the importance of connectivity to rural communities and agri-businesses.

Alexa also won the supreme award, the Ministry for Primary Industries Rongo Award, for her excellence in agricultural journalism. Her coverage of a week-long muster in Muzzle Station, the first after the Kāikoura earthquake, won her several awards after her articles featured on Morning Report, Checkpoint, Insight programmes, and on the RNZ website.

Congratulations to Sally Rae of the Otago Daily Times who received the Rural Women New Zealand Journalism Award for her articles that delivered important messages. The stories about rural women in action in the community were well-written, inspiring and supported by good photography.

At the Beef + Lamb NZ Awards Dinner on Friday 13 October, a total of ten awards were presented, nine for journalism and one for photography.

Other award winners on the night were:

• The AgResearch Science Writers Award, established to enhance standards of science writing, especially about pastoral agriculture, was won by Alexa Cook and Carol Stiles.
• The Federated Farmers Broadcast Journalism Award was won jointly by Carol Stiles and Alexa Cook
• The DairyNZ Dairy Industry Award which recognises the ability to communicate the complexities of the dairy industry, was won by Jackie Harrigan for articles in The Dairy Exporter.
• The inaugural Zespri Export Journalism Award, which recognises the vital importance of exports to the New Zealand economy, was won by Fairfax Media’s Gerard Hutching.
• The Alliance Group Ltd Red Meat Industry Journalism Award, which focuses on all aspects of the red meat industry was won by Alexa Cook, of RNZ Rural News
• The Beef + Lamb New Zealand News Award, which recognises excellence in hard news journalism, focusing on any aspect of the beef and sheep industry, was won by Nigel Stirling for articles in Farmers Weekly and NZX Agri’s Pulse, both on trade talks.

• The Federated Farmers Rural Photography Award was won by Des Williams, for a photo which appeared in Shearing magazine.
• The Guild award – the Agricultural Journalism Encouragement Award – is designed to encourage and recognise excellence among journalists with three or less years reporting on agricultural issues. This year, it was won by Brittany Pickett, of Invercargill, for articles which appeared in the NZ Farmer.

For further quotes please contact:
Fiona Gower
National President
Rural Women New Zealand
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 027 428 3884