Carol Dowling of Noongar Radio Perth has been awarded the 2013 Human Rights Award in the radio category. The awards were announced at Sydney’s MCA yesterday evening.

Carol’s series, produced for Noongar Radio, and funded by the Department of Health and Ageing, consisted of a 30-part series on the subject of ear disease. Preventable ear disease is the leading cause of hearing loss among Aboriginal Australians and is a contributing factor in ongoing Indigenous disadvantage.

Noongar Radio were one of 35 community media organisations to work on the National Indigenous Ear Health Campaign, for which I&G Pty Ltd were the Executive Producers.

On accepting the award Carol said: “Paul Higgenbotham, one of the experts I interviewed, said that education is the way that disadvantaged communities rise up out of poverty.  For my people, that pathway to a good education is literally being blocked, by the gunk in the kids’ ears.”

The series is also the winner of the 2013 community broadcasting award for Excellence in Spoken Word, News and Current Affairs Programming.