Fourth Estate

Who gets to defend the public’s right to know—and when do they need permission?

After ABC journalist and union president Michael Slezak faced possible disciplinary action over an article opposing restrictions on access to company directors’ information, we revisit a conversation about press freedom with award-winning journalist Peter Greste.

Originally broadcast in November 2023, Greste joins then Fourth Estate host Anthony Dockrill to examine Australia’s secrecy laws, the vulnerability of journalists and whistleblowers, and the chilling effect of legal threats on public interest reporting.

Drawing on his experience of spending 400 days imprisoned in Egypt, Greste argues for stronger protections for journalism—and asks what the public loses when important stories become too risky to pursue.

Introduced by Tina Quinn with context on this week’s ABC dispute and the staff pushback that followed.

Please note: the legal developments, cases and figures discussed in the archive interview reflect November 2023.

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One of Australia's most celebrated investigative journalists, Kate McClymont has spent decades exposing corruption, organised crime and the murky relationships between money and political power.

In this episode from the Fourth Estate archives, originally broadcast in September 2019, McClymont joins former host, Peter Fray to discuss Dead Man Walking, her book co-written with journalist Vanda Carson about the extraordinary life and murder of Sydney businessman Michael McGurk.

Gunned down outside his Cremorne home in 2009, McGurk had warned McClymont just ten days earlier that he believed there was a contract out on his life. His murder exposed a tangled web of property developers, political connections, corruption and criminality.

McClymont reflects on the investigation, the challenges of dealing with unreliable and self-interested sources, and the persistence required to uncover the truth.

The pair also discuss the growing threats to investigative journalism, from surveillance powers and the protection of confidential sources to the 2019 Australian Federal Police raids on the ABC and News Corp.

Seven years on, it's a compelling reminder of why investigative journalism matters — and the extraordinary stories that might otherwise remain untold.

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Donald Trump’s latest battle with the press has seen his White House move to exclude CNN, POLITICO and MS NOW — but this time, rival news organisations are standing together. What could Australia’s media learn from that show of solidarity?

Susan Glasser, staff writer at The New Yorker and former editor of POLITICO, and former ABC Editorial Director Alan Sunderland join Tina Quinn to examine press freedom, political access and what happens when governments decide which journalists get into the room.

Then, The Australia Institute's Amy Remeikis takes us inside the Canberra Press Gallery — from political “drops” and strings-attached exclusives to whether Australian journalists need to get better at standing together when one of their own is shut out.

And we remember one of the giants of Australian journalism, Peter Manning, who died this week aged 81. Former Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes and journalist Jan Fran reflect on the legendary Four Corners executive producer, ABC news leader and mentor who backed generations of journalists to hold power to account.

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Australia has changed — but have our politics and media kept up?

In his new book Three Shocks: Who We Are Becoming in the 21st Century, journalist and author George Megalogenis charts the demographic, economic and geopolitical forces reshaping the country.

Tina Quinn speaks with George about the widening disconnect between Australia and its political class, the media’s enduring obsession with an outdated idea of the “Australian voter”, the resurgence of One Nation and the increasingly fraught debate over migration and housing.

They also examine what happens when journalism is no longer the curator of political debate — and an online attention economy increasingly rewards the loudest and most extreme voices.

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How should journalists report domestic violence — and what happens when allegations of abuse become content?

In this edition of Fourth Estate: One From the Archives, Tina Quinn revisits a 2022 conversation recorded in the aftermath of the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial, when allegations of domestic violence became the subject of an extraordinary global media and social media spectacle.

Journalists Lin Evlin and Helen Pitt examine the media’s reporting of the case, the ethics of covering violence against women, victim-blaming and sensationalism, and the responsibility journalists have when reporting domestic and family violence.

Four years on, amid renewed scrutiny of the Depp–Heard case and the online campaign surrounding it, the questions raised in this conversation remain as urgent as ever.

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Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, Fourth Estate returns to the newsrooms and streets where history unfolded in real time.

Sandra Sully joins Tina Quinn to reflect on the extraordinary night she became the first Australian journalist to break the news, anchoring live from Network 10 as the scale of the attacks became clear. Former Fourth Estate host Prue Clarke recalls reporting from Ground Zero as a young Financial Times reporter in New York.

Then, we examine what happened to journalism in the aftermath: the jingoism that swept through American newsrooms, the treatment of Muslim communities, and the discredited Weapons-of-Mass-Destruction reporting that helped pave the road to war in Iraq — with archival reflections from former New York Times editor Andrew Rosenthal and NBC News journalist Doha Madani.

Recommended Links:

New Narratives

9-11 and the Liberal Media's Dark Legacy, Fourth Estate

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For more than seven decades, Rupert Murdoch has wielded extaordinary influence over journalism, politics and public debate across Australia, Britain and the United States.

But how does that power actually work -- and what happens when the Murdoch media decides to turn its attention on you?

Tina Quinn speaks with journalists and academics Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson about their new book, Getting Murdoch: How Murdoch's Media Wields Power and Punishment. Drawing on more than 50 case studies, they examine the tactics used to reward allies, punish critics and shape political and public life -- and ask whether the age of Murdoch is really coming to an end, or whether concentrated media power is simply taking new forms.

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When does civility stop being a virtue become a weapon?

Recorded live at Gleebooks in Sydney, political journalist and author Amy Remeikis joins Fourth Estate host Tina Quinn to discuss her bestselling new book, Screw Nice, and how demands for politeness and "balance" can silence dissent, sanitise injustice and protect those in power.

From media coverage of Gaza and the policing of womne's anger to protest, faith, political language and the myth of journalistic neutrality, Remeikis makes the case for speaking plainly - even when it makes people uncomfortable.

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What happens when sex work pays better than journalism?

After being made redundant from his job in the media, investigative journalist Bension Siebert began working as a sex worker — and discovered he could earn in five hours what he made in his best-paid week as a journalist.

But rather than leaving journalism behind, Siebert is now using sex work to fund his own investigative reporting.

This week on Fourth Estate, Tina Quinn speaks with Siebert about journalism’s increasingly precarious economics, the investigations mainstream media organisations decide are too risky to publish, and why he believes the gap between what Australian newsrooms know and what they’re prepared to report is growing.

Click here to read Bension Siebert's essay: How sex work saved my investigative journalism career.

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Walking away from Between the Lines in 1997 meant leaving behind what Caroline Baum considered the high point of her career. But her story was far from over.

In the third and final part of our special Fourth Estate profile, we pick up with Caroline back at the ABC, where a hoped-for return to the national broadcaster as Executive Producer of Radio National’s Arts Today instead became another difficult chapter in her career.

But what followed was also a period of reinvention.

Caroline reflects on becoming the founding editor of Good Reading magazine, her return to television, her time as Editorial Director at Booktopia, and the twists and turns of building a successful freelance career across print, radio and television.

Then came perhaps her most personal piece of work: Only: A Singular Memoir.

For the first time, Caroline put into print the truth of her complicated childhood and her turbulent relationships with both her parents, confronting memories she had carried with her for decades.

And now, with Life Sentences, Caroline has returned to what she has always done best: conversation. The podcast sees her speaking with biographers about the lives they spend years trying to understand—and, in a fitting full-circle moment, it is now coming to the ABC Listen app.

Caroline Baum joins Tina Quinn for the third and final part of a wide-ranging conversation about journalism, ambition, disappointment, reinvention, family—and what it takes to build a life and career on your own terms.

Catch up on parts one and two in the Fourth Estate podcast feed.

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