Chris Masters Info

Chris Masters: Context

Chris Masters is the most experienced reporter on Australia's longest running public affairs television program, Four Corners. He has made around 70 programs for the highly respected show, and won a Gold Walkley award, the highest accolade in Australian journalism, in 1985 for his internationally exclusive report on the French secret service's sinking of the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior.

Other Info

Chris Masters needs no introduction for those who follow the fine tradition (and democratic underpinning) of investigative journalism. As senior reporter for ABC Television's longest-running public affairs program Four Corners, Masters has arguably been responsible for some of the most probing journalism this country has seen.

More than that, his meticulously researched reports have precipitated that rare event - actual change. The Moonlight State, his report on corruption in Queensland, was one of the partial triggers for the Fitzgerald Report. An event that shook the state to its political and judicial foundations.

Not for Publication is a book about Masters' stories that never made it air (for legal, ethical or technical reasons) but definitely still deserve an audience.

Masters is of the belief that journalism shouldn't try to be fair, it should strive for balance. "Balance is like a bonding agent that strengthens a story and helps it stand the test of time," he writes. It is balance, wisdom and a strong sense of ethics that makes Masters leave out the guilty (and innocent) parties in Not for Publication. That and the ever-present threat of legal action.

Thankfully, he's also of the opinion that journalism with balance and integrity doesn't have to be passionless.

In other words, the stories have a quality that makes them vitally important, they could be a part of your life.

- it's enough to know they're out there.