Annika Smethurst Author

Annika Smethurst is the state political editor at The Age newspaper in Melbourne. She is a double Walkley Award winner and has two Melbourne Quill Awards for political reporting. In 2019, Annika became the accidental poster woman for press freedom when her house was raided by the AFP over a story she wrote revealing a government plan to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australians. In her 2020 essay, On Secrets, she explored the impact of the raids and examined the importance of press freedom. She is the former national political editor of the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Herald Sun and is a regular on ABC's Insiders program and Sky News.