The Wire

On February 22nd this year, the Victorian County Court ruled that a female journalist who was employed by The Age newspaper in Melbourne as a crime/court reporter from 2003 to 2013 was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which was triggered by reliving horrifying and disturbing details about some of Australia’s most notorious crimes.

This included the case of 4-year-old Darcey Freeman, who was thrown from the West Gate Bridge by her father in 2009.

With a lack of peer support, self-care programs and other services on offer for qualified news journalists in Australia and other international countries, this landmark judgment could change how news gathering and reporting is performed across all newsrooms.