1. The award is worth $5,000.
2. The competition is open to media professionals working in the Australian print and electronic media.
3. The awards apply to work published, broadcast or televised between 1 April 2006 and 28 February 2007.
4. Journalists may enter their own work or be nominated by a third party.
5. Joint by-line articles or broadcast works will accepted.
6. Articles published without a by-line must be accompanied by a letter from the editor verifying authorship.
7. The awards will be given to media professionals who are judged to have given readers / viewers / listeners the best understanding
of important legal principles, the legal profession or the operation of a particular facet of the justice system in Australia.
Examples include stories that may:
• examine the many different factors that a judge must take into consideration when sentencing a convicted criminal;
• explain the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the jurors in a trial, the instructions given to them by the judge, or the procedures for determining which evidence is brought before them;
• give readers / listeners / viewers a basic understanding of one or more complex legal concepts – such as duty of care, the law of contract, or informed consent for an operation – which are relevant to every day living, but are often misunderstood;
• analyse perceived ‘crises’ in the legal system – such as the‘leniency of the judiciary’, the ‘public liability crisis’ – possibly through skillful research and presentation of sentencing and crime statistics;
• explain the importance of an independent judiciary and the rule of law.
8. Entries may be news, feature, analysis or commentary pieces.
9. Entrants agree to the reproduction by the Bar Association of their entry for the purpose of judging and promotion of the awards.