McKenzie named Evans Fellow at Reuters

Pete McKenzie has been awarded the 2025 Sir Harry Evans Global Fellowship in Investigative Journalism at Reuters.

The fellowship is a landmark partnership among Reuters, Durham University and Tina Brown, award-winning journalist and widow of acclaimed newspaper editor Sir Harry Evans.

The fellowship offers talented early career journalists the chance to pursue a nine-month investigative project in a Reuters newsroom, along with access to Durham University experts and resources.

Evans, a Durham University alumnus, is well-known for his successful ten-year campaign to win compensation for the victims of the thalidomide drug whilst editor at the Sunday Times, and for campaigning to introduce free cervical smear tests for women while at the helm of the Northern Echo.

McKenzie, based in New Zealand, is a contributing writer to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian and the Economist 1843 Magazine, as well as local outlets North & South Magazine and New Zealand Geographic.

His investigative features focus on the politics of the Pacific, including exposing how corruption and mismanagement exhausted a major U.S fund in the Marshall Islands and how hundreds of Pacific veterans of America’s military are denied access to V.A. care.

McKenzie was chosen out of more than 1,000 applicants to be the 2025 Sir Harry Evans Global Fellow and will take up his role early next year.

“We are very much looking forward to welcoming Pete to the Reuters enterprise team,” said Steve Stecklow, a Reuters investigative reporter and chair of the Fellowship Committee judging panel, in a statement. “Although he’s early in his career, he has already published some very impressive investigations and is looking to further hone his skills.”