Influencing held the 24th Annual Samsung Australian IT Journalism Awards last Friday evening. This year’s ‘Lizzies’ saw a range of different winners across journalist, beat, media and coverage categories and Gold Lizzie awards.  Congratulations to all our winners, as well as those who were finalists and who received a ‘highly commended’ nod from the judges. A massive thank you once again to our sponsors:  Samsung Australia, Cisco, MYOB, Meta, Optus, Kinetic IT, PEXA, ACS, ARMHub and Watterson. And to the Award supporters: Adobe, Aussie Broadband and Apptio.  Please enjoy some photos of this year’s Lizzie winners.  Alicia Camphuisen Best New Journalist: SBS’ Veronica Lenard, presented by Watterson Marketing’s Oisin O’Callaghan Best Security Journalist: The Age & SMH’s David Swan  Best Gaming Coverage: Edmond Tran accepting for This Week In Videogames Best Business Coverage: Andrew Birm

Front page news for Tuesday, 31st March, 2026   Dezi Freeman manhunt ends in fatal shootout Australia’s most wanted fugitive, alleged cop killer Dezi Freeman, has been shot dead by Victoria Police after a tip-off led officers to a remote hideout and a stand-off in which he reportedly refused to surrender and drew or fired a weapon. Beyond closing a seven-month manhunt, the focus now shifts to how Freeman evaded capture for so long and whether a network of supporters helped him stay on the run—raising fresh questions about extremist “sovereign citizen” ecosystems and policing tactics. Covered by: Herald Sun, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The West Australian, Courier Mail, The Advertiser, The Mercury, Daily Telegraph. Labor’s fuel excise cut: relief now, inflation and deficit later The Albanese government will halve the fuel excise for three months from April 1, pitching immediate cost-of-living relief as petrol prices surge ami

Congress MLA from Rajouri, Iftkar Ahmed, has called for a government policy to curb the growing issue of fake journalists and fake news in Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, he urged stricter regulation of social media content and action against individuals posing as journalists and spreading misinformation. Ahmed said the absence of a clear framework has enabled unchecked activity, where anyone can create social media pages and present themselves as media persons without accountability. He warned that misleading or fake videos often damage reputations without any mechanism for redressal. The legislator pressed for defining who qualifies as a media professional, introducing minimum standards or qualifications, and mandating registration of media entities operating on social platforms. He stressed that accountability must be fixed in cases where false information harms individuals or institutions. Ahmed added that established media organisations continue to pe

  The 20th edition of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, India’s most prestigious recognition for journalistic excellence, was presented on March 27. Vice‑President of India C. P. Radhakrishnan, addressing the ceremony, underscored the crucial role of journalism in sustaining democracy, emphasising that credible and courageous reporting remains central to public accountability. This year’s awards honoured 24 journalists across 19 categories, spanning print, digital, and broadcast platforms. The winners were recognised for impactful work in investigative reporting, politics and government, civic journalism, sports, books, and regional language journalism. Among the standout honourees: Sreya Chatterjee and Arvind Ojha (India Today) for civic journalism in digital, with Chatterjee also recognised for her investigation into illegal immigration along the India–Bangladesh border. Praveen Jain (ThePrint) for excellence in photojournalism. Vidh

The ACJ Alumni Association congratulated Srikkanth Dhasarathy (batch of 2012–2013) and Tannu Jain (batch of 2016–2017) on winning the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in the Print category.  Srikkanth Dhasarathy, a reporter with DT Next, won in the Sports Journalism category for his feature on the life and achievements of Indumathi Kathiresan, a leading woman footballer from Tamil Nadu.  Tannu Jain was recognised in the Environment, Science & Technology Reporting category. She had written extensively on environment and climate change for Hindustan Times and was currently studying at Columbia Journalism School.  The association expressed pride in their achievements and wished them continued success.   

Image of the Day The scheme under the VB-G-Ram G Act, 2025 is yet to be rolled out. Picture by Moorthy G-The Hindu Live-in couples in stable relationships to be classified as married Bharti Jain for The Times of India reported that a live-in couple staying in a household in a “stable union” shall be treated as a married couple in Census 2027. In an FAQ reply listed on the census self-enumeration portal — to whether a couple in a live-in relationship will be considered a married couple during self-enumeration or the enumerator’s visit to the household — the authorities state: “If they (the couple) consider their relationship as a stable union, they should be treated as a married couple”. Though a clarification on the issue has been publicly offered the first time, possibly as respondents will be self-enumerating, an official involved in previous census exercises said unmarried couples living together and declaring themselves as “married” to the enumerator were rec

Image edited by Dinesh Raj M   For decades, the television rating system in India has operated like a casino where the house always wins and the house, in this case, was a cosy club of broadcasters, advertisers and a single all-powerful ratings monopoly. The numbers that determined which news channel got the ad money, which prime-time anchor kept their job, which story got told louder -- all of it flowed from a system that was, at best, opaque, and at worst, gameable. Then on March 27, 2026, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting quietly did something rather radical: it rewrote the rules entirely. The TRP Policy 2026 isn't glamorous legislation. There are no ribbon-cutting ceremonies for audience measurement reform. But read between the lines of the MIB's notification, and what emerges is a blueprint that could genuinely shift the power dynamics of Indian news media -- if the industry has the courage to let it. Start with the most overlooked reform: the man