Tracey Shelton is an Australian journalist 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 ...

in their Asia-Pacific newsroom. In 2012, her photographs of a Syrian tank attack on rebel fighters in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

gained significant attention from mainstream and social media. She also covered the

Libyan Civil War Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. All figures are from the United Nations Demographic Yearbooks ...

and obtained exclusive footage of Muammar Gaddafi's death which led to a UN enquiry. Shelton has won many international accolades for her work including a

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

, an

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

honour and an award of excellence from

POYi Pictures of the Year International (POYi) is a professional development program for visual journalists run on a non-profit basis by the Missouri School of Journalism's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. POYi began as an annual competition ...

Early and personal life

Shelton was raised on a farm in the central

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

town of Darraweit Guim. Shelton volunteered at Sunrise Cambodia at a young age and continued her involvement with the organisation and support for the children throughout her life. In June 2015, Shelton married Syrian refugee Ahmad al-Haj, whom she met through mutual friends whilst she was living in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Education

In 2012, Shelton completed a master's degree from the

University of Bolton The University of Greater Manchester (legally: The University of Bolton Higher Education Corporation) is a public university in Bolton, Greater Manchester in England. The university is commonly referred to as a 'post-92' institution, which is a ...

's International Multimedia Photojournalism program based in China.

Career

Shelton began her career in 2005 in Cambodia, freelancing and later working for ''

The Phnom Penh Post ''The Phnom Penh Post'' (, ) is a daily English-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Founded in 1992 by publisher Michael Hayes and Kathleen O'Keefe, it is Cambodia's oldest English-language newspaper and prior to the transferr ...

'', ''Post Khmer'' and ''Seven Days'' magazine. She was on assignment in Iraq when she moved to Libya to cover the civil war. She was tied and brutally beaten in her hotel room in

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

during a robbery and attempted kidnapping, from which she escaped by jumping to another balcony. She later obtained exclusive video of the death of

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...

. In September 2012, Shelton was reporting on rebel fighters near the front lines in Aleppo. Shortly after a warning that a Syrian tank was near, Shelton filmed a

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

impact as it exploded nearby, killing three of the four rebels at the position. Images and accounts of the encounter and Shelton's reporting style were widely redistributed by traditional news sites as well as social media. In her account of the incident, Shelton said, "I was covered in the dust and debris; it started really coming down. So I ran back a bit, and we stood back behind this cloud and were waiting for these guys, the guys to come running through.... and no one came." Shelton was presented with the

for Video Reporting by

Carl Bernstein Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original ne ...

for a series of video reports on Aleppo, Syria throughout 2012. Bernstein remarked that Shelton had communicated "the human tragedy of the conflict in Syria in a way that is impossible to ignore or forget. Through powerful video, viscerally engaging images and authoritative writing, she gave voice and face to those most affected by the civil war." Shelton has since received 19 international awards and accolades for her work including a Peabody, POYi Pictures of the Year International Award of Excellence in Multimedia and the Media Award presented by the

International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) is a controversial nonprofit professional organization of health professionals and individuals who are interested in advancing the scientific and societal understandings o ...

for broadcast news and articles on complex trauma and incestuous child abuse. Shelton works for the

as a Middle East expert in the

Asia Pacific Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

newsroom.Bio and list of articles by Tracey Shelton at Australia's ABC
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Sunrise Cambodia

It was announced in September 2022 that Shelton, who had volunteered at the Sunrise Cambodia orphanage since 1998, would be taking over leadership of the charity network from

Geraldine Cox Geraldine Dorothea Cox (born ) is the founder of Sunrise Cambodia, a charity that was originally established as an orphanage in the province of Kandal, in Cambodia, and now extends its services to sustainable development and family support in ...

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelton, Tracey Living people Australian journalists Australian photographers Australian photojournalists Australian war correspondents Women war correspondents George Polk Award recipients Year of birth missing (living people)