Kate Wong and David Bogi from the University Of Melbourne have won Democracy’s Watchdogs inaugural award for student investigative reporting.

Their investigation revealed how China has hosted Muslim journalists on trips to Uighur ‘re-education’ centres to counter claims it is inflicting human rights abuses on the Muslim minority group.

The judges found their story, which was published in print in the UK by The Observer and online by The Guardian, epitomised fine investigative journalism, noting that:

“Kate and David dug hard across the world to find their story. They pursued and interviewed widely to confirm the facts. Sometimes what they didn’t see was as important as what they did.  They considered what they were told with scepticism and where necessary disregarded it. They expanded our knowledge and understanding of a crucial issue – China.”
Readable and well-written, the piece showed two tenacious young journalists in full flight.”

The winning pair will share the $1000 award and will each receive a trophy. Their story was also recently awarded the 2020 Ossie Award for student investigative journalism by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia.

Two student journalists from RMIT University were highly commended by Democracy’s Watchdogs. .