Sophie McNeill is an Australian journalist, television presenter, author and human rights activist.
She is best known for her work reporting from
conflict zones.
She was a reporter with the
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 ...
's investigative program
Four Corners
The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...
and is a former Middle East Correspondent for
ABC news
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
; and has delivered reports from across the region including in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and
Gaza. She resigned from the ABC in 2020 to work as a researcher for
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
.
Life and career
McNeill began making documentaries in 2001, her first film highlighted the crippling health crisis in a recently-liberated East Timor, for which she received Western Australia's Young Person of the Year Award.
In 2003, McNeill's investigation into the death of an asylum seeker who'd been held under Australia's mandatory detention policy won her the
MEAA
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), also sometimes referred to as the Alliance, is the Australian trade union and professional organisation which covers the media, entertainment, sports and arts industries.
Its Musicians section c ...
's Student Journalist of the Year Award, Best Newcomer at the West Australian Media Awards and Best Emerging Director at the West Australian Screen Awards.
She was also a New York Film Festival finalist for her 2005 story Shoot the Messenger, which detailed the shooting of an unarmed, wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque by an American soldier.
McNeill has worked for ABC's Foreign Correspondent, SBS's Dateline and is a former host of the news and current affairs program Hack on
Triple J
Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...
. She has twice been awarded Australian Young TV Journalist of the Year and in 2010 won a
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 her investigation into the killing of five children in Afghanistan by Australian Special Forces soldiers, and was nominated for a Walkley in 2015 for her coverage of the
Syrian refugee crisis. In September 2015, her reporting helped reunite a Syrian refugee family that had become separated on the European refugee trail.
In 2019, she received international recognition for her efforts documenting the asylum claim of
Rahaf Mohammed.
In March 2020, ABC Books published McNeill's first book, ''We Can't Say We Didn't Know: Dispatches from an age of impunity''. It was shortlisted for the 2020 Walkley Book Award and for the Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer at the 2020
Western Australian Premier's Book Awards
The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the Government of Western Australia, and managed by the State Library of Western Australia.
History and format
Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the Wes ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McNeill, Sophie
Australian journalists
Living people
1985 births