Meghna Bali named 2022 Andrew Olle Scholar

Meghna Bali, a digital reporter with triple j’s Hack, has been named as the 2022 Andrew Olle Scholar.

Meghna began her ABC career as a cadet in Brisbane and has worked as a journalist and fact checker for RN’s Background Briefing and as a video journalist in regional New South Wales.  Meghna writes and produces online and radio stories for Hack and has contributed to other ABC programs including the ABC NEWS channel and The Drum.

Her original journalism stories include exposing a $50 million Ponzi scheme that stretched from Western Sydney to an Indian jail, chronicling the impact of lockdown on teenagers and revealing the poor treatment of trans women in men’s prisons.

During her scholarship, Meghna wants to focus on developing her investigative skills and learning how to craft powerful digital stories.

“ I was raised in multicultural, working class neighbourhoods - the kinds of communities that don’t have access to and aren’t often reflected in nuanced ways across Australian media. I’m passionate about changing that and based on the resourcing and hiring decisions of the past few years, so is the ABC,” Meghna said.

“I’m thrilled and honoured to be awarded the Andrew Olle Scholarship for 2022. The Scholarship has a long history of supporting early career journalists develop the skills to become fine investigative reporters.”

The scholarship honours the life and work of the late ABC journalist Andrew Olle, who was one of Australia’s most admired broadcasters. Andrew presented some of the ABC’s flagship programs including Four Corners, The 7.30 Report and Mornings on ABC Radio Sydney (then 2BL). The scholarship is designed to create career development opportunities for young ABC journalists and to promote the values that epitomised Andrew Olle's journalism.