WINNER 2025
Broadcast
Meghna
Bali
Australian Broadcasting corporation
Meghna Bali is the South Asia Bureau Chief and Correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, based in New Delhi. Her work covers critical developments across the region, with a focus on religious tensions, migration, gender rights, and political movements. She reports across television, radio, and digital platforms, with stories featured on Foreign Correspondent, Four Corners, and Background Briefing. Before her South Asia assignment, Meghna was part of ABC’s investigative teams in Australia, where she contributed to high-impact journalism.
Winning Work
Indian Students Duped in Multi-Million Dollar Australian Visa Fraud
This award-winning investigation uncovered a widespread and deeply damaging scam targeting Indian international students through fraudulent education agents. The reporting revealed how young migrants, hoping to study and build new lives in Australia, were misled by agents charging exorbitant fees for fake or non-existent college placements. Victims were left in financial and legal ruin—stranded without valid visas, buried in debt, and in many cases unaware that their enrolments were fraudulent.
The investigation, published as a digital feature for ABC News and a broadcast story for 7.30, combined reporting efforts from India and Australia. Meghna Bali and Som Patidar spoke directly with affected students, their families, Indian authorities, and migration experts. They exposed fabricated educational institutions and systemic loopholes within Australia’s migration process, while Rahni Sadler pursued leads in Australia, revealing how deregistered colleges were complicit in enabling the fraud.
The series resonated strongly with Australia’s South Asian community, garnering hundreds of thousands of views and widespread engagement. It led to public donations for victims like Prinjal, whose father had taken on crippling debt for her fake college admission. Importantly, the investigation empowered other scammed students to come forward, helping shine a light on a broken system and sparking dialogue on migrant rights and education reform.