Wendy Bacon

Last updated

Wendy Bacon
Wendy Bacon 1972.jpg
Leaving court, Sydney 1972
Born1946 (age 77–78)
OccupationJournalist, academic
NationalityAustralian
Alma mater University of Melbourne (BA)
Website
www.wendybacon.com

Professor Wendy Bacon (born 1946) is an Australian academic, investigative journalist, and political activist who was head of the Journalism Program at the University of Technology, Sydney. She was awarded Australian journalism's highest prize, a Walkley Award in 1984 for her articles about police corruption in New South Wales.

Contents

On her own website Bacon describes her approach to journalism and political activism: [1]

I am an investigative journalist who is also a political activist. This means that I want my journalism to be useful to those who resist abuses of power and seek social justice rather than supporting existing power structures, which is what most journalism does. My emphasis is on information that I hope will empower people to take action.

Early life and education

Bacon is the daughter of a doctor and the sister of the former Premier of Tasmania, Jim Bacon. During her early years the family lived in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir. Educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne, she attended the University of Melbourne in the mid-1960s where she was active in the anti-Vietnam War campaigning.

In the late 1960s, Bacon attended the University of New South Wales, where she was a member of the Kensington Libertarians, edited the student newspaper Tharunka and later the underground anti-censorship paper Thor. [2] She was part of the group that distributed a publication called The Little Red Schoolbook which had explicit information about sex. [3]

When she was 23, Bacon was convicted for exhibiting an obscene publication and jailed at Mulawah Women's Prison for eight days. Her brief experience in prison led her to later co-found the support group, Women Behind Bars, in Sydney and also exposed her to incidents of police corruption. [4]

Career

Bacon wrote a series of articles in The National Times newspaper on the attempted bribe and murder of Detective Michael Drury in the 1980s and this story formed the basis of the award-winning ABC television mini-series, Blue Murder . [5]

Bacon has worked in both print and television, working for the Nine Network on the Sunday program and 60 Minutes , The National Times and The Sun-Herald , and Dateline on the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).

Bacon enrolled in graduate law school in 1977. [6] Upon graduation in 1979 she applied to join the New South Wales Bar Association, [6] but was rejected on character grounds as an unsuitable person. In his judgment, Justice Reynolds stated that the decision was "a question of whether a person who aspires to serve the law can be said to be fit to do so when it is demonstrated that in the zealous pursuit of political goals she will break the law if she regards it as impeding the success of her cause". Justice Reynolds and two other justices of the NSW Court of Appeal found unanimously that Bacon had lied in her evidence to the court about her role in conspiring with others to illegally get a prisoner out of gaol by putting up a dummy bail surety. The court described the plan by Bacon and her cohorts as a put-up job. It was principally on the basis of this finding that the Court unanimously determined that Bacon was not a fit and proper person to be a barrister. The court case was subsequently reported in the New South Wales Law Reports: In Re B [1981] 2 NSWLR 372 and for several years was taught to law students and Bar Course students in ethics courses.

Subsequent to this she became a journalist and, during the mid-1980s, was involved in reporting the case of High Court judge Lionel Murphy. Murphy, who was alleged by some to have connections to organised crime, [7] was charged with perverting the course of justice, and convicted, but was acquitted after two appeals. Bacon received a Walkley award in 1984 for her exposure of official corruption in New South Wales. [8]

From 1991 to August 2012 Bacon was an academic at the University of Technology, Sydney, where she taught journalism at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ). [9] She continues to write as a freelance investigative journalist, with a series of articles about one police officer's corrupt framing of his ex-wife eventually leading to the overturn of a miscarriage of justice. [10] Bacon also runs courses in freedom of information law for Fairfax Media. [11]

Alongside her distinguished career as a journalist and academic, she has continued an interest in anarchism, feminism and political activism. [12] In 2016 Bacon was arrested at a protest to stop the construction of the WestConnex motorway. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Paul John Kelly is an Australian political journalist, author and television and radio commentator from Sydney. He has worked in a variety of roles, principally for The Australian newspaper and is currently its editor-at-large. Kelly also appears as a commentator on Sky News Australia and has written seven books on political events in Australia since the 1970s including on the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Recent works include The March of Patriots, which chronicles the creation of a modern Australia during the 1991–2007 era of prime ministers, Paul Keating and John Howard, and Triumph & Demise which focuses on the leadership tensions at the heart of the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments of 2007 to 2011. Kelly presented the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV documentary series 100 Years – The Australian Story (2001) and wrote a book of the same title.

<i>The Age</i> Melbourne daily newspaper

The Age is a daily tabloid newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and southern New South Wales. It is delivered both in print and digital formats. The newspaper shares some articles with its sister newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian Wilkinson</span> Australian journalist and author

Marian Wilkinson is an Australian journalist and author. She has won two Walkley Awards, and was the first female executive producer of Four Corners. She has been a deputy editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, a Washington correspondent for The National Times, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as a senior reporter for The Australian.As of April 2017, she is a senior reporter at Four Corners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Murphy</span> Australian politician

Lionel Keith Murphy QC was an Australian politician, barrister, and judge. He was a Senator for New South Wales from 1962 to 1975, serving as Attorney-General in the Whitlam government, and then sat on the High Court from 1975 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Marr (journalist)</span> Australian journalist

David Ewan Marr FAHA is an Australian journalist, author, and progressive political and social commentator. His areas of expertise include the law, Australian politics, censorship, the media, and the arts. He writes for The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, and Guardian Australia. Marr now hosts Late Night Live on ABC's Radio National

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Moorhouse</span> Australian writer (1938–2022)

Frank Thomas Moorhouse was an Australian writer who won major national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay and for script writing. His work has been published in the United Kingdom, France and the United States, and translated into German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Serbian and Swedish.

Catherine Ellen Martin was a journalist for The West Australian newspaper from 1957, specialising in medical reporting. The winner of the inaugural Gold Walkley, Martin is known for her reporting the impact of asbestos–related diseases on the mining community in Wittenoom Gorge that led to the company James Hardie being found in the Supreme Court of New South Wales guilty of misleading conduct and failing to meet its obligations over its handling of asbestos compensation.

Liz Jackson was an Australian journalist, TV presenter and barrister noted for her work on the Four Corners and Media Watch television programs. She received nine Walkley Awards for excellence in journalism.

Evan Whitton was an Australian journalist.

Caroline Overington is an Australian journalist and author. Overington has written 13 books. She has twice won the Walkley Award for investigative journalism, as well as winning the Sir Keith Murdoch prize for journalism (2007), the Blake Dawson Waldron Prize (2008) and the Davitt Award for Crime Writing (2015).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Journalism in Australia</span>

Journalism in Australia is an industry with an extensive history. Reporters Without Borders placed Australia 26th on a list of 180 countries ranked by press freedom in 2020, ahead of both the United Kingdom and United States. Most print media in the country is owned by either News Corp Australia or Nine Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leigh Sales</span> Australian journalist and author (born 1973)

Leigh Peta Sales is an Australian journalist and author, best known for her work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Hocking</span> Australian political science writer and researcher

Jennifer Jane Hocking is an Australian historian, political scientist and biographer. She is the inaugural Distinguished Whitlam Fellow with the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University, Emeritus Professor at Monash University, and former Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University. Her work is in two key areas, counter-terrorism and Australian political biography. In both areas she explores Australian democratic practice, the relationship between the arms of government, and aspects of Australian political history. Her research into the life of former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam uncovered significant new material on the role of High Court justice Sir Anthony Mason in the dismissal of the Whitlam government. This has been described as "a discovery of historical importance". Since 2001 Hocking has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lionel Murphy Foundation.

The Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ)(1990-2017) was a non-profit organisation based at the Broadway campus of the University of Technology, Sydney. The ACIJ was founded in 1990 as a Centre with close links to the University's Journalism School. The ACIJ ceased to operate in 2017, after campus authorities "killed it off", according to Pacific Journalism Review. The ACIJ's aims included assisting in the production of quality journalism, especially investigative journalism; to support research into journalism and the media and to contribute to scholarly debate and research about journalism.

Margaret Simons is an Australian academic, freelance journalist and author. She has written numerous articles and essays as well as many books, including a biography of Senate leader of the Australian Labor Party, Penny Wong and Australian minister for the environment Tanya Plibersek. Her essay Fallen Angels won the Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism.

Nick McKenzie is an Australian investigative journalist. He has won 14 Walkley Awards, been twice named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year and also received the Kennedy Award for Journalist of the Year in 2020 and 2022. He is the president of the Melbourne Press Club.

Kathryn Anne McClymont is a journalist who writes for The Sydney Morning Herald. Notable for exposing corruption in politics, trade unions, sport, and horse racing, she has received death threats because of her exposés. She has won many awards for her reporting, including the 2002 Gold Walkley Award for her work on the Canterbury Bulldogs salary cap breaches. She is best known for her series of articles and book about New South Wales Labor Party politician Eddie Obeid.

Annika Smethurst is an Australian journalist. She is the state political editor for The Age newspaper in Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharri Markson</span> Australian journalist, editor and author

Sharri Markson is an Australian journalist and author. She is investigations editor at The Australian and host of the Sky News Australia program Sharri, which airs 8-9pm Monday - Thursday. She is the winner of numerous awards in journalism, including two Walkley Awards.

Louise Milligan is an Australian author and investigative reporter for the ABC TV Four Corners program. As of March 2021, she is the author of two award-winning non-fiction books. Her first novel, Pheasants Nest, was published in 2024.

References

  1. ↑ "About". Wendy Bacon. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  2. ↑ "Sydney Libertarians and Anarchism Index - Wendy Bacon". Radical Tradition-An Australian History Page. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  3. ↑ Franklin, James (2003). "Chapter 5 -The Push and Critical Drinkers". Corrupting the Youth: A History of Australian Philosophy. Macleay Press. ISBN   9781876492083.
  4. ↑ Sorensen, Tracy (8 April 1992). "Wendy Bacon: 'a more repressive mood'". Green Left Weekly. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  5. ↑ "Wendy Bacon". Australian Womens Register. 10 October 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  6. 1 2 Bacon, Wendy (22 November 2003). "I Fought the Law..." The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  7. ↑ Whitton, Evan. "Can of Worms II - Lionel Murphy: Trials and Tribulations". Networked Knowledge. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
  8. ↑ "Award for best news story goes to freelance writer". Canberra Times. 17 October 1984. p. 16. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  9. ↑ "Farewell for Wendy Bacon". Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, University of Technology, Sydney. August 2012. Archived from the original on 24 March 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  10. ↑ Bacon, Wendy (24 July 2010). "Roseanne Catt ordered to pay former husband". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  11. ↑ "About ACIJ/Staff". Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ). Archived from the original on 12 August 2010. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  12. ↑ "The relevance of anarcha-feminism today". Workers Solidarity Movement. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  13. ↑ Meade, Amanda (21 October 2016). "Journalist and activist Wendy Bacon arrested at WestConnex protest". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 20 July 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.