Australian Press Council Independent Journalist Members

Julie Flynn

Julie Flynn Biography Julie Flynn is a retired journalist and media executive. During the transition from analogue to digital television, Julie was CEO of Free TV Australia, the industry body representing Australia’s commercial television stations. Julie joined Free TV after a distinguished career as a journalist and media executive. She was a senior executive at Radio 2UE but is best known for her work as a reporter and commentator in the Press Gallery with the ABC, the National Times and 2UE. Julie has won a Walkley Award for Radio News reporting and was President of the Canberra Press Gallery. She has served on a range of Boards and Committees including the Walkley Awards Advisory Panel, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Advisory Board, the Public Service Medal Committee, the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre Board and the Ronald McDonald Hospital Charity Board. Julie has undertaken some media consultancies in her retirement.

Peter Greste Professor Peter Greste is an Australian-born journalist, author, media freedom activist and academic. He is a founding member of the advocacy group, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, and the UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland. Before joining the university in January 2018, he spent 25 years as a foreign correspondent, starting with the civil war in Yugoslavia and elections in South Africa as a freelance reporter in the early 90s, before joining the BBC as its Afghanistan correspondent in 1995. He went on to cover Latin America, the Middle East and Africa for the BBC. He hit the headlines himself in December 2013, when he and two colleagues were arrested in Cairo on terrorism charges. They were convicted and sentenced to seven years in a case that drew international condemnation as an attack on press freedom. Under pressure, Professor Greste was released and he went on to become a champion of press freedom around the world. His stance has earned him numerous international awards, including the the Australian Human Rights Commission Medal, the RSL’s 2016 ANZAC Peace Prize, and the Australian Press Council’s 2018 Press Freedom award. Peter was appointed as an independent journalist member of the Press Council in August 2019.

Mike Steketee

Mike Steketee started his career in 1966 as a cadet journalist with the Daily Telegraph in Sydney. He joined the Sydney Morning Herald in 1975 and his positions there included Washington correspondent, NSW State political correspondent, Canberra political correspondent and head of bureau and political editor based in Sydney. He became The Australian’s national affairs editor in 1994. Since 2012 he has been a freelance journalist. Mike has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Australian National University (1975) and is co- author of “Wran, An Unauthorised Biography” (1986). In 2000, he won a Walkley award for journalism leadership. Mike Steketee joined the Council as an independent journalist member in January 2014 Kirstie Parker

Kirstie Parker is a Yuwallarai woman from northern NSW, and the Director of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation within the SA Department of the Premier and Cabinet. She is also a Director of . Kirstie began her career as a journalist in 1986 with the West Australian newspaper, later working for ABC Radio, editing the Tablelander newspaper in far north Queensland, and editing the national Indigenous newspaper the . She was formerly media advisor to a Federal Government Minister, elected co-chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, and CEO of the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence. Kirstie received an Australian Centenary Medal in 2001, an Australian Peacewoman Award in 2015, and a national Human Rights Award – Media category in 2008 and was named in the inaugural 100 Women of Influence Awards in 2012. Kirstie Parker was appointed as an independent journalist member of the Press Council in August 2019.

November 2019 Australian Press Council Address: Level 6, 309 Kent Street, GPO Box 3343 Sydney 2001 Phone: (02) 9261 1930 or 1800 025 712 Fax: (02) 9267 6826 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.presscouncil.org.au