How the arms industry courted Australia’s National Press Club

When Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges was suddenly canceled by the National Press Club, Dr. Questions have been raised about whether his deep ties to the arms industry undermine the integrity of his journalism, Rosemary Sorensen writes.

AMERICAN JOURNALIST Chris Hedges, National Press Club In Australia, they removed the word “Press” from the title, we did not know how appropriate this criticism was.

Hedges was responding at the time to the sudden cancellation of his planned address and the NPC CEO’s claim. Maurice Reilly He said it was never actually approved and there was no pressure from anywhere to cancel it.

Yes, that’s right, you may have thought. David Marr on ABC Radio National Late Night Live While the program chastised Hedges for daring to cite failures in reporting Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza, it was happy enough to gloss over how a journalist was treated by an organization dedicated to truth in journalism.

Someone did some background work, following up on Reilly’s statement that the decision to cancel Hedges was his and the Board’s decision alone. Author Michelle Fahy, who explores the impact of the gun industry written about National Press Club Board of Directors and sponsors.

The article begins like this:

Australian National Press Club lists 81 corporate sponsors on the website.

Of these, 21 are either part of the global arms industry or actively work on its behalf.

Eyebrow lift? Why would such a company say: ThalesWhich ‘He is being investigated by four countries for widespread criminal activities’Do you want to sponsor a journalists’ club? And perhaps more importantly, do you have such a club? ‘policies or guidelines addressing eligibility and selection… exist’ from its sponsors.

To the question posed to him by Fahy, Mr Reilly said:

“The board is informed monthly about proposals and has the right to reject any application.”

It would be a very strange board that does not actually have such a “right”, but is waiting for a response to the request for clarification from the NPC (which has not yet arrived at the time of this writing), so this would have to be taken as a no.

At this point in his article, Fahy turns to board members, where he finds a list of people whose experience and connections might surprise you. It’s not what he wrote. ‘Alleging or implying improper or illegal conduct’. This ‘The arms industry’s non-transparent participation in public life’ That’s the problem.

For example, Fahy’s summary for a member of the Board of Directors: Gemma Daley:

Gemma Daley joined the board a year ago after starting as Ai Group’s head of media and government affairs four months ago. Ms Daley has worked for Nationals leader David Littleproud, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and former Treasurer Joe Hockey, and before that for media outlets Financial Review and Bloomberg.

Ai Group has a significant defense focus and bills itself as the “highest national representative body for the Australian defense industry”. The group established a Defense Council and appointed former Defense Department deputy secretary Kate Louis to head it in 2017. The co-chairs of the Defense Council are senior arms industry executives. One of them, Paul Chase, is the CEO of Press Club sponsor Leidos Australia.

The history of board members like Daley and others on the NPC board may be coincidental; In this case, something like an apparent backflip in commitment to a speaker that might be seen as contrary to the sponsors’ interests needs to be addressed. Even though it seems confusing National Anti-Corruption CommissionBut it is a simple question: How does an organization deal with conflicts of interest, and how transparent are its means of accounting for any perception of conflict?

So far Mr Reilly’s answers to Fahy’s questions have not been reassuring.

After establishing cross-connections between some board members and the arms industry, Fahy turns to how NPC benefits financially from arms industry-related sponsors. ‘Contribute $525,000 annually’This corresponds to 23 percent of the income earned. This is a good proportion of the revenue side of the accounting statement.

The antics of the Canberra media-connected lunch crowd and their friendly links to contentious and even openly discredited companies are worrying.

Yes, there are a number of speakers on display at the luncheon at this institution in Canberra. Judge, winner of the Sydney Peace Prize Navi Pillaywas followed by the outgoing president Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Joe Longo. After UNICEF Australia’s speech James the ElderChief Executive Officer FutureCoal, Michelle Manookwill talk about his advocacy role. ABC General Manager Hugh MarksDeputy Chairman of the Opposition Ted O’BrienMinister of Veterans Affairs Matt Keogh: they all get a gig.

So, with such a busy schedule, the question remains: Why did Chris Hedges’ speech have to be cancelled? Most reports, including Fahy’s, tell us that he is a Pulitzer Prize winner and that his career is impossible to summarize. But if we were to pick one random highlight, we could say that he was one of a group arrested in 2016 for protesting corporate lobbying of politicians at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and that is the title of his 2022 book. The Greatest Evil Is War.

The decision, along with the claim that it was made in the name of “balance”, also damaged the reputation of the NPC. Will the NPC membership respond? Do they care? Or is it a case of weathering the turmoil and continuing, as before, to accept sponsorships that could introduce conflicts of interest, at least for boards?

I asked Fahy if the level of sponsorship from guns and related companies surprised him when he turned his attention to the organization that canceled Chris Hedges, and he said that, but he wasn’t shocked to learn the gun industry was going to cancel. “An attempt to enter into any sphere of influence”.

Fahy was nevertheless appalled that the iconic national press club had allowed this scenario to develop, especially to the extent that:

“What strikes me is the lack of due diligence in assessing sponsors (both the number of corporate sponsors and who they are). The press needs to be held accountable without fear, but the Press Club is now funded by a number of very powerful corporations. In my view this compromises and undermines what good journalism stands for and what it should be about.”

The question to the members and board of the National Press Club is: Is that your view?

Dr Rosemary Sorensen IA is a columnist, journalist and founder of the Bendigo Writers Festival.

Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.

Related Articles