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

Profile
on ''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