Åsa Wahlquist
Encyclopedia
Åsa Wahlquist is an Australian journalist. For over twenty years she has been writing and speaking on rural issues, focusing mainly on Australian climate and water issues. Wahlquist recently resigned as the rural writer for the newspaper The Australian
. In 2008, she released the book Thirsty Country: Options for Australia, exploring Australia's water systems and the potential impact of climate change.
, whose tweets on Twitter
suggested Wahlquist found the editorial direction of The Australian Editor-in-Chief Chris Mitchell
"prescriptive" and stifling. Mitchell threatened Posetti with defamation as a result, indicating after audio recordings of Wahlquist's speech surfaced that Australian law does not protect individuals who are "repeating accurately allegations falsely made". The issue of whether the reporting is accurate remains itself in some dispute; while some press found the transcripts supported Mitchell's tweets, Jonathan Holmes
of Media Watch felt the unclear audio had led to a serious error in the transcript, suggesting that while "[t]he essence of what Wahlquist had to say was summarised fairly enough...in a defamation case in Australia, near enough isn't necessarily good enough."
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
. In 2008, she released the book Thirsty Country: Options for Australia, exploring Australia's water systems and the potential impact of climate change.
Awards
In 1996 Wahlquist won a Walkley Award for a three part series, published in Australian newspaper The Land, called The Gutting of NSW. In 2005 she won the Peter Hunt Eureka Prize for Environmental Journalism; in 1993 The European Community Journalist Award, and several Dalgety Awards and McKell awards for rural journalism.#Twitdef
In November 2010 Wahlquist spoke at a Journalism Education Conference in Sydney about the issues she faced on election coverage of environmental issues. Wahlquist's speech was attended by academic Julie PosettiJulie Posetti
Julie Posetti is an Australian journalist and academic best known as the subject of a threatened lawsuit because of statements she made via Twitter.- Career :...
, whose tweets on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
suggested Wahlquist found the editorial direction of The Australian Editor-in-Chief Chris Mitchell
Chris Mitchell
Chris Mitchell is an Australian journalist and is editor-in-chief of The Australian. He began his career on the former afternoon tabloid, The Telegraph, in 1973 and after working on The Townsville Bulletin, The Daily Telegraph and the Australian Financial Review, became editor of The Australian in...
"prescriptive" and stifling. Mitchell threatened Posetti with defamation as a result, indicating after audio recordings of Wahlquist's speech surfaced that Australian law does not protect individuals who are "repeating accurately allegations falsely made". The issue of whether the reporting is accurate remains itself in some dispute; while some press found the transcripts supported Mitchell's tweets, Jonathan Holmes
Jonathan Holmes
Jonathan Holmes is a British-born Australian television journalist and producer who has been, since 2008, the presenter of the ABC1 weekly programme Media Watch....
of Media Watch felt the unclear audio had led to a serious error in the transcript, suggesting that while "[t]he essence of what Wahlquist had to say was summarised fairly enough...in a defamation case in Australia, near enough isn't necessarily good enough."