The 2025 Lowy Institute Media Award was presented to 2013 ACYD Alumna Sue-Lin Wong for her work hosting the podcast series ‘Scam Inc.’ for The Economist. The eight-part series takes a deep dive into the multi-billion dollar, sophisticated, and international industry of online scams.

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About the Award

Awarded annually to Australian journalists, the Lowy Institute Media Award recognises individuals who have ‘deepened the knowledge, or shaped the discussion, of international policy issues in our country’ through either a series of reports or a single piece of commentary or reporting.

Each work is assessed on a number of award criteria - from the quality and originalty of content, to the degree of influence to which the work has informed or shaped discourse of international policy. This year’s judging panel included The Australian Journalist Paul Kelly, ABC Journalist Leigh Sales, and Nine’s A Current Affair host Allison Langdon.

About the Recipient

Graduating from the Australian National University with dual degrees in Law and Asian Studies, Sue-Lin Wong has an extensive career in journalism, working with Reuters News Agency, the Financial Times as the South China Correspondent and most recently, as the Asia Correspondent at The Economist, after previous roles as the China and South-East Asia Correspondent. Across her career, Sue-Lin has been honoured with numerous other international journalism prizes, and was also the co-creator and host of ‘The Prince’, another long-form narrative podcast that was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 best podcasts of all time.