Second year journalism student, Laerke Christensen, has won the 2018 Bob Friend Memorial Scholarship with her pitch for a story on paid parental leave for the death of a child.
Laerke, 22, from Ballerup near Copenhagen, Denmark, was presented with her award by the BBC’s Media Editor Amol Rajan at the annual Bob Friend Memorial Lecture on Thursday 22 February 2018.
The Centre for Journalism student had to pitch her ideas about how her story should be covered to a panel at Sky News offices in Millbank, London. Her prize is a four-week internship at Sky News and a contribution towards her tuition fees.
Amol Rajan
Announcing her award at the event in the Royal Historic Dockyard Church lecture theatre, Assistant Editor of Sky News, Peter Diapre commended the quality of the entrants for this year’s scholarship.
The lecture was established in 2009 by a partnership of the Friend family, Sky News and the University in memory of Bob Friend, who was the original face of Sky News as well as a long-serving BBC journalist.