Belinda has been a reporter with ABC TV and SBS for 30 years. During that time she has worked as a foreign correspondent in a range of locations including Cuba, Far East Siberia, Nigeria, Eritrea, and Germany.
Her work has been recognised with many awards both in Australia and abroad. Among those awards are two Walkley Awards for excellence in journalism, three New York Film Festival World Medals, six Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards, including the Gold Quill, and four United Nations Media Peace Awards.
Belinda has written a book called ‘Every Parent’s Nightmare’ about a family saga and murder trial set in Bulgaria that was a subject of a two part Australian Story called ‘Conviction’. It was published by Allen and Unwin.
She has a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Melbourne and started her working life as high school teacher in rural Victoria. She joined Australian Story in 2001.
Posted
| UpdatedFirst juvenile detention, then prison, Marlion Pickett was committing robberies to support his young family. Now he's one of AFL's most admired players. So why is the grand final legend heading back behind bars?
Topics: human-interest, australian-football-league, perth-6000, richmond-3121
Posted
| UpdatedRichmond coach Damien Hardwick admits he was a "shocking" coach in Tigers' darkest days before embarking on a new strategy that led to Marlion Pickett's selection.
Topics: sport, australian-football-league, richmond-3121
Posted
| UpdatedFrom prison to premiership legend, Marlion Pickett is seemingly living the dream. But he says his story is no fairytale.
Airs Monday March 2, 8pm (AEDT), on ABCTV and iview.
Topics: human-interest, australian-football-league, australia
Posted
| UpdatedInside Jock Palfreeman's 12-year fight for freedom from a Bulgarian prison.
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, human-interest, australia
Posted
| UpdatedFootage of the 2007 fight in which Jock Palfreeman stabbed and killed a Bulgarian man in Sofia has been published for the first time, with the Australian saying it supports his long-standing claim he had acted in self-defence.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, prisons-and-punishment, courts-and-trials, bulgaria, sydney-2000
Posted
| UpdatedBulgaria's highest court will now hear the case of Australian Jock Palfreeman a fortnight earlier than originally scheduled, as a social and political row engulfs the country in response to him being granted parole.
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, rights, murder-and-manslaughter, crime, bulgaria, australia
Posted
| UpdatedA far-right political party's move to ban the Bulgaria Helsinki Committee for offering support to convicted Australian killer Jock Palfreeman is described as an "unprecedented attempt to silence a human rights organisation in Europe".
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, government-and-politics, world-politics, foreign-affairs, bulgaria
Posted
| UpdatedIn a new twist to the saga of Sydneysider Jock Palfreeman, 292 Bulgarian judges sign a letter defending the appellate court's decision to grant the Australian parole.
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, rights, murder-and-manslaughter, crime, bulgaria, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAustralian Jock Palfreeman takes his first steps outside a Bulgarian prison after serving more than 11 years in jail for the murder of a local student, but must wait for a passport before he can leave the Eastern European nation.
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, human-rights, murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, crime, bulgaria, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAustralian Jock Palfreeman is a step closer to returning home after being granted parole by a panel of three judges at the Sofia Appellate Court in Bulgaria.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, murder-and-manslaughter, crime, foreign-affairs, australia, bulgaria, newcastle-2300
Posted
| UpdatedAustralian Story journalist Belinda Hawkins tells of two years of work investigating and gaining the trust of Yoshe Taylor and her legal team to reveal how the Queensland mother became ensnared in an international drug-smuggling operation which landed her in a Cambodian jail.
Topics: journalism, television-broadcasting, abc, drug-offences, internet-culture, cambodia
Posted
| UpdatedPart two of the shocking story of Queensland school teacher, Yoshe Taylor, and how a group of lawyers worked together to free her from a Cambodian prison.
Topics: human-interest, law-crime-and-justice, australia, cambodia
Posted
| UpdatedAn Australian mother was left to "rot" in a Cambodian prison for almost six years after the Australian Federal Police failed to reveal the drug syndicate that fooled her into smuggling heroin had trapped other innocent Australians.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, human-interest, drug-offences, police, cambodia, esk-4312
Posted
| UpdatedEncouraged by her friends to look for love online, Queensland teacher and mother-of-two Yoshe Taylor swiftly found herself immersed in the stuff of nightmares.
Topics: courts-and-trials, human-interest, australia
Posted
| UpdatedHow did an ordinary mother of two from rural Queensland become the target of an international drug smuggling syndicate? Yoshe Taylor spent almost six years in a Cambodian prison for a crime she didn't commit. This is the online scam that destroyed her life.
Topics: crime, internet-culture, human-interest, prisons-and-punishment, drug-offences, esk-4312, cambodia
Posted
Jock Palfreeman, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for murder in Bulgaria and has been called a "human rights hero" for his work advocating for prisoner rights, is refusing to eat in a show of defiance against the country's justice system.
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, human-rights, bulgaria
Posted
| UpdatedAn Australian mother of two is freed from a Cambodian jail after spending almost six years behind bars for a drug-smuggling crime she did not commit, as a result of being lured into an elaborate online love scam.
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, drug-offences, human-interest, brisbane-airport-4007, cambodia
Posted
| UpdatedThalidomide survivors welcome a Senate report that says the Australian Government owes an apology and ongoing disability support payments to thalidomide survivors.
Topics: community-and-society, health, disabilities, government-and-politics, human-interest, canberra-2600, australia, vic
Posted
| UpdatedAustralians still living with the effects of one of the world's worst pharmaceutical disasters will hear what their future holds in a senate inquiry report today, as Opposition Leader Bill Shorten pledges to give a national apology.
Topics: human-interest, medical-history, government-and-politics, canberra-2600, vic
Posted
| UpdatedThe survivors of one of the world's worst pharmaceutical disasters seek justice.
Topics: health, pharmaceuticals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedTwo pills. That's all it took to change Lisa McManus's life. She was left scarred and disfigured by one of the world's worst pharmaceutical disasters. Now, five decades on, these thalidomide survivors are seeking justice.
Topics: pharmaceuticals, disabilities, health, human-interest, babies---newborns, law-crime-and-justice, vic, australia
Posted
| UpdatedIn a television exclusive, the untold story of James Ricketson, the Australian filmmaker locked up in Cambodia for 15 months on espionage charges.
Topics: human-interest, australia
Posted
| UpdatedA look back at the quietly inspirational life of Samuel Symons.
Topics: human-interest, diseases-and-disorders, australia
Posted
| UpdatedSamuel Symons endured countless surgeries and hospital visits through his young life, but the son of Elly Symons and media personality Red Symons led a quietly inspirational life that we can all learn from.
Topics: brain-tumor, cancer, human-interest, melbourne-3000
Posted
| UpdatedDassi Erlich and her sisters’ campaign to extradite their former headmistress from Israel to Australia takes a dramatic twist when an undercover operation produces compelling new evidence.
Topics: religion-and-beliefs, courts-and-trials, australia, israel