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Paul Barry
Barry in 2013
Born	Paul James Barry (1952-02-24) 24 February 1952 (age 72) England
Nationality	British–Australian
Education	University of Oxford
Occupation(s)	Journalist, newsreader & TV presenter
Known for	Host of Media Watch
Notable work	Investigative reporter Four Corners, Investigate reporter for 60 Minutes

Paul James Barry (born 24 February 1952) is an English-born, Australia-based journalist, newsreader and television presenter, who has won many awards for his investigative reporting. He previously worked for the BBC on numerous programs, before emigrating to Australia.

Early life

Barry is from Underriver and went to Solefield School, and Sevenoaks School.

He studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford. At Exeter College, Oxford he captained the university golf team.

Career

Early career in London

Barry started his journalistic career in London as an economics correspondent for the weekly magazine Investors Chronicle.

In 1978, he joined the BBC as a reporter for The Money Programme, Newsnight, and then Panorama.

Australian television

In 1986, he moved to Australia and started work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. From 1987 to 1994, Barry worked as an investigative reporter for the ABC's flagship current affairs program Four Corners specialising in economic matters, government departmental failures and corporate governance. A series of reports on disgraced businessman Alan Bond (and his company Bond Corporation) brought his work to national prominence in 1993. He also wrote a report on the Wittenoom industrial disaster, "Blue Death".

In 1995, Barry joined the Seven Network to present a short-lived news program The Times. He was later the presenter of the current affairs program Witness in 1997.

Barry returned to the ABC to host the Media Watch program in 2000. He was effectively sacked from this show by ABC head Jonathan Shier after a controversial interview with ABC chairman Donald McDonald on the subject of government funding for the ABC.

In 2004 he moved to the Nine Network to work as an investigative reporter for 60 Minutes. However, in August 2010, Barry acted as Media Watch's temporary host for three months while Jonathan Holmes took long-service leave.

On 3 July 2013, Barry returned as the host of Media Watch following the earlier decision of Jonathan Holmes to leave the show.

On 6 August 2021, Barry was injured when he was hit by a car while bicycling to work, causing him to take some time off Media Watch to recover from his injuries. The ABC sent over Jeremy Fernandez and Janine Perrett to fill in for him on the program while on recovery. Barry subsequently returned to hosting the program on 30 August 2021. He presented his last Media Watch episode on 2 December 2024.

Writing

In 1991, Barry wrote the book The Rise and Fall of Alan Bond. In 2001, Barry published a book, Going for Broke – How Alan Bond Got Away with It. For the next two years he wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald, winning an additional Walkley Award exposing a tax scam involving prominent barristers in Sydney. He has served as a Walkley Award judge and on a past Walkley advisory board. He also wrote a book Rich Kids, documenting the collapse of One.Tel.

In 2006, Barry released a biography on Australian cricketer Shane Warne, called Spun Out. Extracts of the book were published in The Age's Good Weekend magazine, and some of the content was controversial.

During October 2009, Barry was the subject of criticism from Australian business identities for his 2009 unauthorised biography of media and gambling mogul James Packer. The book details relations between the younger Packer and his father Kerry, citing anonymous sources as stating the pair had a difficult relationship, and that James was "relieved" by his father's death. Business leaders and friends of the Packers including former Nine Network CEO Eddie McGuire and mining tycoon Andrew Forrest defended James Packer. Upon launching the book, Barry dismissed the criticism, calling the book "fair" and "considered".

Barry has been a contributor to Crikey, an online magazine published by Private Media (in which he has a minority share). He joined Crikey in December 2010, and was given around A$152,000 (equivalent to $191,533 in 2022) worth of new shares of Private Media in June 2012. In February 2011, Alan Bond published a rebuttal of an article written by Barry in December 2010 about Bond's investment in Global Diamond Resources Plc. In August 2011 Barry was appointed as a senior writer at Private Media's The Power Index, "a free website offers daily news, views and features about power and influence in Australia."

Political views

When conservative broadcaster Andrew Bolt described Barry as "of the Left" upon his re-appointment to the Media Watch program in 2013, Barry said: "I would certainly describe myself as to the left of Andrew Bolt, so on that basis I am left-wing. But in no other basis do I think I’m left-wing. I believe in the free market, I believe in freedom of speech, I believe actually in privatisation, I believe in an awful lot of things that would make me a free-marketeer and, you know, a Liberal." In 2014, Barry told Media Watch he had voted for Liberal Malcolm Turnbull as his local MP in the 2013 election.

When Turnbull resigned as Prime Minister ahead of a leadership ballot in 2018, Barry's op-ed on Media Watch, called the Liberal challenge to his leadership "madness", and endorsed the analysis of Fairfax Media's Peter Hartcher that Turnbull's challenger Peter Dutton was "poison" and Kevin Rudd's analysis that News Corp is a "cancer on Australian democracy". Barry denounced a "cabal of conservative commentators" including Tony Abbott supporters Alan Jones, Ray Hadley, Paul Murray, Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt and Rowan Dean for criticising Turnbull's leadership.

Awards

Books

• 1991: The Rise And Fall of Alan Bond, ISBN 1-86359-037-4
• 1994: The Rise And Rise of Kerry Packer, ISBN 1-86359-338-1
• 2000: Going For Broke : How Bond Got Away with It, ISBN 1-86325-197-9
• 2001: Going For Broke : How Bond Got Away with It (Revised and Updated), ISBN 1-86325-198-7
• 2002: Rich Kids : How the Murdochs and Packers Lost $950 Million in One.Tel, ISBN 1-86325-338-6
• Rich Kids : How the Murdochs and Packers Lost $950 Million in One.Tel (Revised and Updated), ISBN 1-86325-339-4
• 2006: Spun Out : the Shane Warne Story, ISBN 0-593-05662-0
• 2009: Who Wants To Be A Billionaire? : the James Packer Story
• 2013: Breaking news : sex, lies & the Murdoch succession, ISBN 978-1-74175-978-5

References

1. "Paul Barry". Penguin Books Australia. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
2. Kentish Advertiser Saturday 31 March 1973, page 14
3. Four Corners – Blue Death (1988) at Australian Screen Online
4. Colvin, Mark (30 November 2000). "ABC's Media Watch under the axe". ABC PM Archive.
5. "Paul Barry to fill in as Media Watch host". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 21 June 2010. Archived from the original on 25 June 2010.
6. "Paul Barry to return as Media Watch host". The Age. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
7. "Paul Barry makes return to Media Watch look easy in first appearance". The Australian. 9 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
8. @TheRealPBarry (6 August 2021). "Sorry. No ⁦@ABCmediawatch for me this week. Broken hand and pelvis after a thoughtless driver backed into the road without looking and cleaned me up on my bike as I rode to work. Not sure when I'll be good to go again. Soon, I hope" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
9. Perry, Kevin (8 August 2021). "JEREMY FERNANDEZ to host Media Watch after PAUL BARRY Bike crash". TV Blackbox. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
10. Mikkelsen, Abbey (12 August 2021). "MEDIA WATCH musical chairs continues, with JANINE PERRETT hosting next week". TV Blackbox. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
11. Knox, David (26 August 2021). "Paul Barry returning to Media Watch chair". TV Tonight. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
12. "Paul Barry to host his final Media Watch on Monday 2 December". ABC Help - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Help Centre. 30 November 2024. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
13. Walkley Award Judges 2008 Archived 11 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine at Walkley Foundation
14. Meet the Walkley Advisory Board Archived 12 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine at Walkley Foundation
15. Murphy, Damien; Lewis, Daniel (31 July 2006). "Warnie's ex in spin over 'bunch of lies' in biography". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018.
16. "James Packer friends hit back at 'vicious' book". Archived from the original on 11 October 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2009.
17. Biographer's unsourced Packer talk 'worthless' Archived 16 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine at The Australian
18. Burrowes, Tim (20 December 2010). "Investigative journo Paul Barry joins Crikey". Mumbrella. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
19. Cook, Henrietta (25 September 2012). "Chief of Crikey publisher Private Media exits". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
20. Alan Bond rebuts Paul Barry
21. Bond backer demands his money at Daily Telegraph
22. About The Power Index Archived 22 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine official site
23. Media Watch: Episode 14, 6 May 2013; abc.net.au
24. Media Watch offers another surprise: Paul Barry admits he did vote Liberal; Daily Telegraph 6 February 2014
25. Turnbull's downfall; abc.com.au, Broadcast: Mon 27 Aug 2018, 9:15pm
26. Blake Dawson announcement

External links

• Profile at ABC Online
• Speaker profile at ICMI
• Speaker profile at Saxton

• 1952 births
• Living people
• Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
• Australian freelance journalists
• Australian television presenters
• BBC newsreaders and journalists
• English emigrants to Australia
• People educated at Sevenoaks School
• People from Sevenoaks District
• The Sydney Morning Herald people