The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s glossy travel publication, Traveller, has released its annual Traveller Awards – the 120 places, people and experiences that come highly recommended by its globetrotting team of writers and editors.  Now in its second year, the list will be published online and in a special 64-page magazine out this Sunday, showcasing 120 winners in 12 different categories. Those categories range from Style & Design, Wellness and Innovation, to Adventure, Bang for Buck and Hall of Fame. “Our expert team of editors and writers, who travel for a living, nominated a favourite place or experience from their past year of global travel,” says Traveller Content Director Trudi Jenkins. “Then a senior panel chose 10 winners in each category, showcasing a broad range of destinations and activities to appeal to our discerning audience.”

Welcome to Friday, and no prizes for guessing which story dominates the front pages this morning - yes, climate change is red hot, or at least the coverage is across our dailies. You'd expect no less, after all the federal government announced yesterday a 62-70% emissions reduction target by 2035 and despite the frothing in some comment, analysis and editorial pieces this isn't the most radical aim globally - Australia sits well behind the UK which has a whacking 81% reduction target, and just a smidgen below the vast (in terms of population, at least) European Union. Mind you, compare that with the US, which has no target. At. All. But that's another story... The best front page today in terms of good use of a picture and tight messaging is delivered by The Daily Telegraph, and they even have a second story which, while not directly linked to climate change, is nevertheless about electricity, and with the tear sheet design that works beautifully - that exclusive Ausgrid

            Aaj Tak, part of the India Today Group, has been named the most-viewed Hindi news channel on Instagram, capturing 51 per cent of total Instagram actions among a custom set of Hindi news competitors, per Comscore Social (August 2025) as reported by Medianews4u. Aaj Tak's Instagram handle has over 16 million followers and the channel says a reels-led, interactive, digital-first approach is driving engagement with Gen Z and millennials. In August, Aaj Tak logged 110 million actions. Next: News24 at 26.3 million (12.3 per cent), ABP News 21.5 million (10 per cent), The Lallantop 13.6 million (6.3 per cent), NDTV India 12.4 million (5.8 per cent); Zee News and TV9 Bharatvarsh 9.1 million each (4.2 per cent each); India TV 6.9 million (3.2 per cent); Times Now Navbharat 2 million (1 per cent); Good News Today 1.1 million (0.5 per cent); News18 India 1 million (0.5 per cent); Republic Bharat 0.8 million (0.4 per cent); News Nation 0.8 million (0.4 per cent); India

            The Editors Guild of India on September 17 expressed “deep concern” over a Rohini District Court order in Adani Enterprises Ltd. vs Paranjoy Guha Thakurta & Others. The court granted an ex parte “John Doe” injunction restraining nine named journalists and organisations — and unnamed others — from publishing or circulating allegedly “unverified, unsubstantiated and ex facie defamatory” material about the company. The Guild urged the judiciary to address defamation through due process rather than one-sided injunctions that function as prior restraint. It also asked the government to exercise restraint and not act as an enforcement arm for private litigants in civil disputes. Calling the order “particularly disturbing,” the Guild said it “empowers the corporate entity to keep forwarding URLs and links of any content it considers defamatory to intermediaries or government agencies, who are then obliged to remove such content within 36 h

Image source: BBC and TOI; Edited by Dinesh Raj M   Every winter, northern India gasps for air under a blanket of toxic haze. At the heart of it is stubble burning—a quick, cheap way for farmers to clear paddy fields before wheat sowing. Despite billions spent on alternatives, the fires return year after year. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court made it clear: patience is running out. Hot off the Press Krishnadas Rajagopal for The Hindu reported Chief Justice B.R. Gavai’s blunt query to the Centre: why not reintroduce criminal prosecution for stubble burning? “If some people are behind bars, it will give the right message,” he said. The Bench even suggested a separate law to criminalise the practice. Utkarsh Anand for Hindustan Times added that the Court rejected the idea of “absolute immunity” for farmers, pressing the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to adopt penal provisions. Punjab argued it had reduced cases significantly but admitted prosecutions we

John Martinkus.   A couple of real stalwarts of Australian media have passed away this last week, one a war correspondent who spent time covering conflict from the jungles of south-east Asia and further afield, the other a leading TV broadcaster familiar to many.  I first met war reporter John Martinkus in 1998 when he had a brief stop in Sydney and was introduced by a mutual journalist friend. He was young - just 29 then - but earnest, softly spoken - we joked that was because he had to keep his voice down in the jungle - and he told us he was about to set off for East Timor.  In The Age, Kerrie O’Brien has put together a wonderful piece on John’s life - he was 56 when he passed away in Melbourne on Sunday. It’s well worth a read, not least to discover the path he took in journalism and the coverage he delivered, which in East Timor's case - where he embedded with the guerrillas fighting for independence - really did get the story out and tell it to the world with pass

One of the ABC’s most experienced operators - Angela Stengal has left the national broadcaster after 17 years, wrapping up what she says is “a chapter full of innovation, audio, and incredible people”. She’s worked across multiple areas as a digital media strategist at the intersection of media, culture and technology, as she recounts on LinkedIn, where she said, “it’s been a better run than imagined, spanning Innovation, Radio, the Content Ideas Lab, Strategy, and ultimately Content/Screen. I’ve worked with some of my media heroes across radio and TV, and supported the next generation of media talent”. Stengal highlighted projects which have stood out for her. “Not just because they were milestones in my career,” she said, “but because of the teams who were part of them and the impact these had on audiences and the organisation.” She listed: Championing ABC’s podcast 2.0 boom, first with the First Run pilot project (commissioning Science Vs), then la