Wendy Bacon

Professor Wendy Bacon (born 1946) is an Australian academic, investigative journalist, and political activist who was head of the Journalism Program at the University of Technology, Sydney. She was awarded Australian journalism's highest prize, a Walkley Award in 1984 for her articles about police corruption in New South Wales.
On her own website Bacon describes her approach to journalism and political activism:

I am an investigative journalist who is also a political activist. This means that I want my journalism to be useful to those who resist abuses of power and seek social justice rather than supporting existing power structures, which is what most journalism does. My emphasis is on information that I hope will empower people to take action.

Bacon is the daughter of a doctor and the sister of the former Premier of Tasmania, Jim Bacon. During her early years the family lived in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir. Educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne, she attended the University of Melbourne in the mid-1960s where she was active in the anti-Vietnam War campaigning.

Early life and education

In the late 1960s, Bacon attended the University of New South Wales, where she was a member of the Kensington Libertarians, edited the student newspaper Tharunka and later the underground anti-censorship paper Thor. She was part of the group that distributed a publication called The Little Red Schoolbook which had explicit information about sex.
When she was 23, Bacon was convicted for exhibiting an obscene publication and jailed at Mulawah Women's Prison for eight days. Her brief experience in prison led her to later co-found the support group, Women Behind Bars, in Sydney and also exposed her to incidents of police corruption.

Career

Bacon wrote a series of articles in the The National Times newspaper on the attempted bribe and murder of Detective Michael Drury in the 1980s and this story formed the basis of the award-winning ABC television mini-series, Blue Murder.
Bacon has worked in both print and television, working for the Nine Network on the Sunday program and 60 Minutes, The National Times and The Sun-Herald, and Dateline on the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
Bacon enrolled in graduate law school in 1977. Upon graduation in 1979 she applied to join the New South Wales Bar Association, but was rejected on character grounds as an unsuitable person. In his judgment, Justice Reynolds stated that the decision was "a question of whether a person who aspires to serve the law can be said to be fit to do so when it is demonstrated that in the zealous pursuit of political goals she will break the law if she regards it as impeding the success of her cause".
Subsequent to this she became a journalist and, during the mid-1980s, was involved in reporting the case of High Court judge Lionel Murphy. Murphy, who was alleged by some to have connections to organised crime, was charged with perverting the course of justice, and convicted, but was acquitted after two appeals. Bacon received a Walkley award in 1984 for her exposure of official corruption in New South Wales.
From 1991 to August 2012 Bacon was an academic at the University of Technology, Sydney, where she taught journalism at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ). She continues to write as a freelance investigative journalist, with a series of articles about one police officer's corrupt framing of his ex-wife eventually leading to the overturn of a miscarriage of justice. Bacon also runs courses in freedom of information law for Fairfax Media.
Alongside her distinguished career as a journalist and academic, she has continued an interest in anarchism, feminism and political activism. . In 2016 Bacon was arrested at a protest to stop the construction of the WestConnex motorway.

Journalist and activist Wendy Bacon arrested at WestConnex protest

Academic in custody in Sydney’s Newtown after construction workers called in police to break up demonstration

La professoressa Wendy Bacon (nata nel 1946) è una giornalista accademica, investigativa e attivista politico australiana, capo del programma di giornalismo presso l'Università di Tecnologia di Sydney. Ha ottenuto il premio più alto del giornalismo australiano, un premio Walkley nel 1984 per i suoi articoli sulla corruzione della polizia nel Nuovo Galles del Sud.Sul proprio sito web Bacon descrive il suo approccio al giornalismo e all'attivismo politico:

Sono una giornalista investigativa che è anche un attivista politico. Ciò significa che voglio che il mio giornalismo sia utile a coloro che resistono agli abusi del potere e cercano la giustizia sociale piuttosto che sostenere le strutture esistenti di potere, cosa che fa la maggior parte del giornalismo. La mia enfasi è sulle informazioni che spero potranno permettere alle persone di intervenire.Bacon è figlia di un medico e la sorella dell'ex Premier di Tasmania, Jim Bacon. Durante i suoi primi anni la famiglia ha vissuto nel sobborgo di Melbourne del Reservoir. Educata presso il Presbyterian Ladies 'College, Melbourne, ha frequentato l'Università di Melbourne fino alla metà degli anni '60 dove era attiva nella campagna di guerra anti Vietnam.

Alla fine degli anni Sessanta, Bacon ha frequentato l'Università del Nuovo Galles del Sud, dove fu membro dei Libertari di Kensington, ha curato il giornale studentesco Tharunka e successivamente il giornale sotterraneo anticensoriale Thor. Faceva parte del gruppo che distribuiva una pubblicazione denominata Little Red Schoolbook che dava informazioni esplicite sul sesso.

Quando aveva 23 anni, Bacon fu condannata per aver esibito una pubblicazione che fu considerata oscena e imprigionata nel prigione emminile di Mulawah per otto giorni. La sua breve esperienza in carcere l'ha portato a ritrovare più tardi il gruppo di sostegno, Women Behind Bars, a Sydney e ha anche indagato sulla corruzione della polizia.

Official website

Anti-WestConnex protesters, including Wendy Bacon, (centre), were arrested during a demonstration in Holmwood St, Newtown, on 21 October. Picture: Bob Barker.