The Andrew Olle Media Lecture was established in 1996 by the presenters and staff at

702 ABC Sydney ABC Radio Sydney (official call sign: 2BL, formerly 2SB) is an Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC radio station in Sydney, Australia. It is the flagship station in the ABC Local Radio network and broadcasts on 702 hertz, kHz on the AM bro ...

(formerly 2BL) to honour the memory of ABC Radio and television broadcaster

Andrew Olle John Andrew Durrant Olle (28 December 194712 December 1995), always known as Andrew Olle, was a radio and television presenter on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, beginning his career in 1967 as a news cadet and, until his death, workin ...

, who died in 1995 of a brain tumour. It focuses on the role and future of the media.

Lecturers

The Andrew Olle Lecturers have been: * 1996:

David Williamson David Keith Williamson Officer of the Order of Australia, AO (born 24 February 1942) is an Australians, Australian dramatist and playwright. He has also written screenplays and teleplays. Early life David Williamson was born in Melbourne, Vi ...

, Australian playwright * 1997:

Jana Wendt Jana Bohumila Wendt ( ; born 9 May 1956) is an Australian Gold Logie award-winning television journalist, reporter and writer. Early life Wendt was born in Melbourne to Czech parents who emigrated to Australia in 1949. Wendt attended Presentat ...

, Australian television journalist * 1998: John Alexander, former editor-in-chief of ''

The Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'' and ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' * 1999:

Steve Vizard Stephen William Vizard AM (born 6 March 1956) is an Australian television and radio presenter, producer, writer, lawyer and businessman. He is an adjunct professor at Monash University and University of Adelaide. Vizard has written for and ...

, Australian writer and producer, chairman Granada Australia * 2000:

Eric Beecher Eric Beecher is an Australian journalist, editor and media proprietor. He was editor of the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' for four years and for three years was editor-in-chief of the Herald and Weekly Times group. Career In 1990, he founded Text ...

, chief executive of Text Media, former editor of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' * 2001:

Kerry Stokes Kerry Matthew Stokes (born John Patrick Alford on 13 September 1940) is an Australian businessman. He holds business interests in a diverse range of industries including electronic and print media, property, mining, and construction equipment. ...

, executive chairman of the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

* 2002:

Lachlan Murdoch Lachlan Keith Murdoch (; born 8 September 1971) is a British-Australian businessman and mass media heir. He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, co-chairman of News Corp, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation, and the found ...

, chairman of

News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,0 ...

, deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation * 2003: Harold Mitchell, CEO and chairman of Mitchell Partners * 2004:

Chris Anderson Chris Anderson may refer to: Sports * Chris Anderson (baseball) (born 1992), American baseball player * Chris Anderson (cheese roller), 22-time winner of annual cheese rolling * Chris Anderson (footballer, born 1925) (1925–1986), Scottish footb ...

, board member of

Publishing and Broadcasting Limited Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) was one of Australia's largest corporations. With interests primarily in media and gambling, for the entirety of its existence it was largely controlled by the Packer family. History Predecessors PB ...

, former chief executive of

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore, Si ...

* 2005: John Doyle, Australian actor, comedian, writer * 2006: Senator

Helen Coonan Helen Lloyd Coonan (born 29 October 1947) is a former Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1996 to 2011, representing the Liberal Party. She was a minister in the Howard Government, serving as Minister for Revenue a ...

, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts * 2007: John Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of News Limited * 2008: Ray Martin, Australian television journalist * 2009:

Julian Morrow Julian Francis Xavier Morrow (born 1975) is an Australian comedian and television producer from Sydney. He is best known for being a member of the satirical team The Chaser. As a member of The Chaser, he has appeared on several ABC Television p ...

, Australian actor, comedian, member of

The Chaser The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedy group, best known for their television programmes and satirical news masthead. The group take their name from their satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste. The ...

* 2010:

Alan Rusbridger Alan Charles Rusbridger (born 29 December 1953) is a British journalist, who was formerly editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' and then principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Rusbridger became editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' in 1995, hav ...

, editor of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper, media innovator * 2011:

Laurie Oakes Laurie Oakes (born 14 August 1943 in Newcastle, New South Wales) is an Australian retired journalist. He worked in the Canberra Press Gallery from 1969 to 2017, covering the Parliament of Australia and federal elections for print, radio, and t ...

, Australian print and television journalist * 2012:

Mark Colvin Mark Colvin (13 March 1952 – 11 May 2017) was an Australian journalist and radio and television broadcaster for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and worked on most of the flagship current affairs programs. Notably, based in Sydne ...

, Australian radio journalist * 2013:

Lisa Wilkinson Lisa Wilkinson (born 19 December 1959) is an Australian television presenter and journalist. Wilkinson currently narrates '' Ambulance Australia'' and has previously co-hosted the Nine Network's breakfast television program, ''Today,'' with K ...

, presenter of ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'', former ''

Cleo Cleo may refer to: Entertainment * ''Cleo'' (magazine), an Australian magazine established in 1972, now active in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand * Cleo (group), a South Korean girl group formed in 1999 * ''Cleo'' (play), by Lawrenc ...

'' editor * 2014:

Kate McClymont 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 ...

, investigative journalist for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' * 2015: Helen McCabe, editor-in-chief of

The Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...

magazine * 2016:

Waleed Aly Waleed Aly (born 15 August 1978) is an Australian journalist, academic, and lawyer. Aly is a lecturer in politics at Monash University working in their Global Terrorism Research Centre, and a co-host of Network Ten's news and current affairs ...

, writer, commentator, broadcaster, academic and co-host of The Project * 2017:

Joseph Kahn Joseph Kahn may refer to: *Joseph Kahn (director) (born 1972), a film and music video director *Joseph Kahn (journalist) (born 1964), American journalist * Joseph Kahn (shipping executive) (1916–1979), American businessman See also *Joseph Hahn ...

, managing editor of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

* 2018: Caroline Wilson, former chief football writer of

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

* 2019:

Peter FitzSimons Peter John Allen FitzSimons (born 29 June 1961) is an Australian author, journalist, and radio and television presenter. He is a former national representative rugby union player and has been the chair of the Australian Republic Movement sinc ...

, author & columnist for

* 2020–21: Not Held due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. * 2022:

Ita Buttrose Ita Clare Buttrose (born 17 January 1942) is an Australian TV network chairperson, television and radio personality, author and former magazine editor, publishing executive and newspaper journalist. She was the founding editor of ''Cleo'', a ...

, current ABC Chair, author & founding editor of

References

{{reflist Olle 1996 establishments in Australia Australian journalism organisations