Now in its eighth year, the Lowy Institute Media Award is Australia’s premier award for recognising excellence in foreign affairs journalism. It is presented to an Australian journalist or team working in print, broadcast or online media who has deepened the knowledge or shaped the discussion of international policy. The winner or winning team receives $20,000.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Institute decided not to hold a Media Award Dinner in 2020. Instead, on Thursday 29 October, the Institute broadcast a 30-minute online video presentation featuring the finalists and their work.

The broadcast also included a conversation between Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM and The Hon. Peter Costello AC, Chairman of Nine Entertainment Co and former Treasurer of Australia, about the media landscape in 2020.

The winners of the 2020 Media Award were Sophie McNeill, Echo Hui and Jeanavive McGregor –for their two episodes of ABC’s Four Corners: “Rebellion”, about the fight for democracy in Hong Kong, and “Tell the World”, about the mass internment of Uighur people in Xinjiang, China.

The nominees were:

• Angus Grigg and Jemima Whyte – nominated for a series of articles in The Australian Financial Review on the Horizon Oil corruption allegations in Papua New Guinea.

• Kate Lyons – nominated for her work as Pacific Editor for Guardian Australia.

• Hans van Leeuwen – nominated for his work as Europe Correspondent for The Australian Financial Review.

The annual Lowy Institute Media Award recognises Australian journalists who have deepened the knowledge, or shaped the discussion, of international policy issues in our country.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year the Institute decided not to hold a Media Award Dinner. Instead, on Thursday 29 October, the Institute broadcast a 30-minute online video presentation featuring the finalists and their work.

The broadcast also included a short conversation between Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM and The Hon. Peter Costello AC, Chairman of Nine Entertainment Co and former Treasurer of Australia, about the media landscape in 2020.

In their full conversation, available here, they discussed the economics of the media industry in Australia, the balance between national security and media freedom, foreign coverage as a component of Nine’s journalism, and international economic recovery after COVID.

Their conversation was recorded on Thursday 22 October.

To mark the launch of the 2020 Asia Power Index, Hervé Lemahieu, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Asian Power and Diplomacy Program, chaired a panel discussion with Joseph S. Nye Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate; and Professor Yuen Foong Khong, Vice Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

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On Thursday 15 October 2020, the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove hosted an in conversation event via live video stream with General James Mattis, one of America’s most experienced and influential military leaders. General Mattis spoke about serving as US Secretary of Defense, his career as a US Marine, and the security challenge America faces from a rising China. They were joined by Sir Angus Houston, former Chief of the Australian Defence Force.

This event is part of the Lowy Institute's ‘Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order Project’ and is supported by the Department of Defence’s Strategic Policy Grants Program.

On October 8 2020, the Lowy Institute releases the third iteration of its Pacific Aid Map, an analytical tool that collates and analyses data on all aid projects in the Pacific. The Institute held a live online event with regional experts and development partners about how the COVID-19 crisis is playing out in the Pacific. The panel consisted of Audrey Aumua, Deputy Director-General at the Pacific Community; Charlotte Blundell, Assistant Secretary for the Pacific Partnerships & Human Development Branch, DFAT; Alexandre Dayant, research lead of the Lowy Institute's Pacific Aid Map; Michel Kerf, World Bank Country Director for Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands; and moderator Jonathan Pryke, Director of the Lowy Institute Pacific Islands Program.

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Australia's relations with China seem to be reaching new lows each week, with a proliferation of disputes over everything from trade to the media to COVID-19 to universities. On Thursday 24 September, the Lowy Institute hosted a live online event featuring the ABC's Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review's Michael Smith, both recently advised by the Australian government to leave China, along with Kirsty Needham, formerly of the Sydney Morning Herald and now with Reuters, for a discussion of the bilateral relationship. The discussion was moderated by the Lowy Institute's Senior Fellow for North Asia, Richard McGregor.

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On Monday 7 September, the Lowy Institute launched the latest Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia, Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia, the first English-language biography of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. 

Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove spoke with author Ben Bland about what makes the president tick, his struggle to implement reform and tackle the COVID-19 crisis, and why outsiders keep getting Jokowi – and Indonesia – wrong.

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On Friday 28 August, the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove hosted an in conversation event via live video stream with Ambassador Samantha Power, one of America’s leading foreign-policy voices, both as a scholar and a Cabinet member in the Obama administration. Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove spoke with Power about US foreign policy under President Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden’s worldview, the global implications of the coronavirus pandemic and the future of the US-China relationship.

On Thursday 6 August, Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, joined Dr Rodger Shanahan, Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute, for an in conversation event.

The United Arab Emirates has built an increasingly high profile in regional affairs in recent years. Long known for its resource riches and welcoming attitude towards Western expatriates, it has developed and diversified its domestic economy at great speed, and deployed its armed forces on operations in Afghanistan, Yemen and in support of the anti–Islamic State coalition. It also has strong links with Australia, hosting the largest overseas concentration of ADF assets, as well as nearly 20,000 Australian expats, three Australian universities and two Australian international high schools. It is Australia’s main trading partner in the Middle East; more than 300 Australian companies operate there, and the UAE invests more than $11 billion in Australia.

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