 The Institute Media Award is the premier award recognizing excellence in Australian foreign affairs journalism. The Institute established it five years ago because we believe it's in Australia's national interest to have Australian journalists on the global beat. We knew we couldn't affect the economics of the media industry but we could highlight the very best of Australian foreign affairs journalism and reward it. What happens in the world matters very much to our country. We need Australian journalists on the international beat who understand Australian interests, who understand Australian sensibilities and who can tell international stories to Australian audiences. We put a lot of time and thought and effort into the judging process. Every year we appoint a very distinguished judging panel. We look at four criteria, topicality, influence, originality and quality. What I find very interesting about this terrific short list is first of all the geographical spread. It covers stories really from Canberra all the way to Aleppo but also the variety of the kinds of stories. I think it gives a real sense of the variety of brilliant Australian foreign affairs journalism. One of the traditions of the award is that every year we have a keynote speech by someone who talks about the role of the media in the world. I'm very excited that we're hosting Brett Stevens. Brett Stevens is a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times foreign affairs columnist. What's interesting about Brett is that he has been perhaps the most effective critic of Donald Trump from within the American media. The reason I think he's been so effective is that he writes on Donald Trump from the position of a principled conservative and he'll give a major lecture on the evening of the media award. How should the media cover the news in the era of fake news? I think it's going to be a very thought-provoking lecture.