The panel will offer a response to Mr
Howard’s lecture from the perspective of some of Australia’s most
respected journalists, who will reflect on the complex relationship
between politics and the media and their own experiences as working
reporters and editors.

The Panelists:

Alan Kohler:
Alan Kohler is a former Editor of the Australian Financial Review and The Age. He is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of Eureka Report and Business Spectator, a new 24 hour a day business news and commentary website. He is also Chairman of Melbourne University Publishing.

George Megalogenis:
George Megalogenis is the author of Faultlines (Scribe 2003) and The Longest Decade (Scribe 2006, updated 2008) and a senior journalist with The Australian newspaper. He spent 11 years in the Canberra press gallery between 1988 and 1999 before returning to The Australian’s Melbourne bureau. He runs his own blog, 'Meganomics', on The Australian’s website, is a regular panellist with the ABC’s Insiders program and appears on Melbourne community radio RRR’s Breakfasters program.

Leigh Sales:
Leigh Sales anchors the acclaimed Lateline
program on ABC1 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.  She was the
ABC's Washington Correspondent from 2001 to 2005, winning a Walkley
Award during that time for her coverage of Guantanamo Bay.  She is the
author of two books: Detainee 002: The Case of David Hicks and On Doubt.

Paul Kelly:
Paul Kelly is Editor-at-Large of The Australian.
He was previously Editor-in-Chief of the paper. He writes on Australian
politics, public policy and international affairs and is a regular
commentator on the ABC Insiders program.
His new book, The March of Patriots, to be released in September 2009, deals with the prime ministerships of Paul Keating and John Howard.