Deborah Richards is an Australian journalist, of English descent from the Edwards family. Richards has worked for the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

, Essential Viewing Group, and

Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World ...

Life

Richards attended

Brighton Beach Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...

Primary School in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia, and then the Firbank Girls' Grammar School from Year 7, but transferred to Morongo Girls' College (now

Kardinia International College Kardinia International College is an independent K-12 school located in Bell Post Hill, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is a triple campus college, residing on the site of the former Morongo Girls' College and has two other campuses, one in ...

) for the last term of Year 10 until graduation. She then enrolled at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

in 1972, taking an Arts degree, with a double major in Sociology and English. Richards deferred her English Honours year in 1976, and concentrated her efforts into building a mudbrick house in the Macclesfield area, located in the Dandenong Hills region, above Melbourne.

Career

Richards career began at the ABC, in 1983, when she was selected for the television producer training course. Two years later, Richards moved to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

to work at Four Corners. Her career there lasted nine years; two years was spent as a reporter, another two as an associate producer, and five as a field producer. Richards was responsible for the "re-vamping" of

Lateline ''Lateline'' was an Australian television news program which ran from 1990 until 2017. The program initially aired weeknights on ABC TV. In later years it was also broadcast internationally throughout Asia and the Pacific on the Australia Plu ...

(an ABC program), and the Business Show (an SBS program). She was the executive producer of MediaWatch, and has produced several Australian Stories, and a documentary on

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...

for the Leukemia Foundation of Australia. Richards presented '' Earth Beat'', and environmental program on

Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

for a short period of time. Richards left the program to have her first and only child. In 2003, Richards, her husband, and daughter moved to the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Since then, Richards has worked as a freelance journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Doctor, the Medical Observer, and the Australian Financial Review. She now works as the co-editor of a local, independent news magazine called " YourTimes", and also as the producer for the Intelligence Squared Australia Debates (also known as ''iq2oz'').

Awards

She was jointly awarded a Golden

Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

in 1999, alongside Anne Connelly and Richard Ackland for their Cash For Comment affair exposé on MediaWatch. In 2003 Richards was listed as Health Journalist of the Year, presented by the National Press Club of Australia for a feature article about end-of-life decisions, which was presented in the Australian Doctor magazine.

References

*Richards, D. (2008)
Intelligence Squared Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Deborah Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian freelance journalists People from Brighton, Victoria Monash University alumni People educated at Firbank Girls' Grammar School Australian women journalists 20th-century Australian journalists 21st-century Australian journalists Australian people of English descent