(MAY 2017) ABC’s Tony Hill discusses WW2 war correspondence, ethics in journalism and Donald Trump
On May 3rd, 2017, a group of journalism students from Western Sydney University were treated to an exclusive guest lecture from Managing Editor of ABC News 24, Tony Hill. Hill spoke to the students for an hour about the ins and outs of Australian war correspondence during World War 2.
The young journos were also given the opportunity to ask Hill some questions, this time was spent discussing the continual importance of the ABC in modern journalism, some ethical barriers in the industry and gave some tips and advice for using private travel to inspire a career as a foreign correspondent.

Tony Hill is a highly credible and achieved journalist in Australia, he played an essential role in leading the launch of the ABC News 24 channel in 2010 and continues on as the Managing Editor for the channel. Before taking on this role, Hill worked as the Head of International Coverage for the ABC’s network of foreign correspondents. This was after spending the previous 6 years as a foreign correspondent himself, based in Asia and the Middle East for the ABC. Some of his journalistic efforts in the field have involved reporting on the first Gulf War, the Vietnamese withdrawal in Cambodia and the power uprising in Tiananmen Square.
Hill has a great interest in war correspondance of previous decades, particularly World War 2. This specialisation led Hill to write the non fiction book, “Voices from the Air”. The book goes into detail the plights and procedures that Australian foreign correspondents faced while broadcasting out of WW2. This is what Tony spoke about at his guest lecture, giving the students a facinating look into this world.
Despite some technical issues that interrupted the lecture, Hill was able to play the students audio from retrieved ABC reports from WW2. Some of this audio was not even able to be broadcast at the time because of censorship laws. Hill described the different jobs and roles that men took on during this time in the war, and spoke about the different methods and technology used in making the most out of the limited recourses given to these reporters.
At one point during the lecture, Hill began discussing the slight ‘propaganda’ angle that was used for many of these broadcasts because of the unflinching patriotism of the Australian WW2 reporters. Hill also touched on Donald Trump in the context of ‘fake news’ and the inability of the American public to hold Trump accountable for his actions because of his status as President of the United States.
Tony finished his lecture by giving a warning to future journalists on the dangers that may come from working in dangerous situations as a foreign correspondent. Hill said, “being a journalist, a producer, whatever, is exposing yourself to trauma”.
The lecture was interesting, insightful and engaging and is sure to inspire many future journalists that were in the room that day.
Check out Tony Hill on his twitter page! — @tonywhill
