Jill Leonie Singer (1957
– 8 June 2017) was an
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal A ...
journalist, writer and television presenter.
Career
Singer began her career in journalism as an
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
radio trainee in 1984. She eventually became a senior reporter for ''
The 7.30 Report'' on ABC and later presented the
Victorian edition of ''
Today Tonight
''Today Tonight'' is an Australian current affairs television program produced by the Seven Network. It aired from January 1995 to November 2019 in Adelaide and Perth. Editions in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne were previously produced befor ...
'' on the
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...
.
She presented ''The 7.30 Report'', ''The Arts Show'', ''2-shot'' and ''People Dimensions'' (ABC TV). She was the executive producer of ABC TV's national morning news and current affairs program'' First Edition''. She wrote a weekly column for
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 ...
's ''
Herald Sun'' newspaper between 1997 and 2012, and lectured in television journalism at
RMIT University in Melbourne. She made regular appearances on ''The Conversation Hour'' (ABC 774) and on Sky News Australia's ''Melbourne Report''. In 2005 she published a book about commercial surrogacy, ''Immaculate Conceptions : Thoughts on babies, breeding and boundaries''.
Awards
In 1992, Singer won the
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 ...
for Best Investigative Television Journalist for ''
Baby M
Baby M (born March 27, 1986) was the pseudonym used in the case ''In re Baby M'', 537 A.2d 1227, 109 N.J. 396 (N.J. 1988) for the infant whose legal parentage was in question.
Origins
''In re Baby M'' was a custody case that became the first Am ...
'', a story on the death of an infant with severe abnormalities.
In 1997, Singer was highly commended at the
Quill Awards
The Quill Award was an American literary award that ran for three years in 2005-2007. It was a "consumer-driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy." The Quills Foundation, the organization behind the Quill Award, was suppor ...
for her ''Herald Sun'' column. In 1999, Singer won the Quill Award for Best Television Current Affairs report for an investigation into
Exxon Mobil.
In 2010, Singer and Lisa Whitehead won the Quill Award for Best Television Current Affairs (less than 15 minutes) for a report on flaws in the criminal justice system's treatment of domestic violence victims.
Personal life and death
In February 2017, Singer was diagnosed with terminal
AL amyloidosis
Amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, also known as primary amyloidosis, is the most common form of systemic amyloidosis in the US. The disease is caused when a person's antibody-producing cells do not function properly and produce abnormal protein ...
.
On 8 June 2017, a post by her family on Singer's Facebook page announced that she had died at the age of 60 in Melbourne, Victoria.
She had married two months earlier on 8 April 2017, and had a daughter from her first marriage.
References
External links
Profileon ''The Australian Women's Register''
1957 births
2017 deaths
Australian television presenters
Australian women television presenters
Australian women journalists
Journalists from Melbourne
RMIT University faculty
Date of birth missing
Deaths from amyloidosis
{{australia-journalist-stub