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 Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

, Essential Viewing Group, and

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

Life

Richards attended

Brighton Beach Brighton Beach is a List of Brooklyn neighborhoods, neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach ...

Primary School in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, 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 a private 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 Love ...

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

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

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 Macclesfield () is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is sited on the River Bollin and the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east; the town lies south of Ma ...

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 New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

to work at

Four Corners 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. Most of the Four Corners regio ...

. 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). The name typically refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlarged lymph node ...

for the Leukemia Foundation of Australia. Richards presented ''

Earth Beat Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

'', and environmental program on

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

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 Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

, the Australian Doctor, the Medical Observer, and the

Australian Financial Review The ''Australian Financial Review'' (''AFR'') is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its foun ...

. 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 The cash for comment affair was an Australian scandal that broke in 1999 concerning advertorial, paid advertising in radio that was Native advertising, presented to the audience in such a way as to sound like editorial commentary. John Laws, a sho ...

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 20th-century Australian journalists 21st-century Australian journalists 20th-century Australian women journalists 21st-century Australian women journalists Australian people of English descent Journalists from Melbourne