George Negus Biography

George Edward Negus AM (born 13 March 1942) is an Australian author, journalist and television presenter specialising in international affairs. He most recently presented 6:30 with George Negus on Network Ten. He remains a director of his own media consulting company, Negus Media International.

Education

Negus attended Indooroopilly State High School located in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly in Queensland. He studied arts and journalism at the University of Queensland.

Career

Negus was a high school teacher before writing for The Australian and The Australian Financial Review. He served as press secretary for Attorney-General Lionel Murphy during the Whitlam government.

TV journalism

He became most prominent, however, as a reporter for This Day Tonight, a pioneering current affairs show on the ABC which began in 1967 and continued through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Later, he was a correspondent for the Australian 60 Minutes program in from 1979 until 1986 and then co-hosted Today until 1990.

From 1992 until 1999, Negus hosted the ABC's foreign-themed current affairs Foreign Correspondent. After this project he went to live in Italy for 15 months on a professional sabbatical but produced a book entitled "The World From Italy -- Food, Football and Politics" which was published in 2001.

In 2002, Negus returned to the ABC to facilitate a pre-election panel and audience discussion program "Australia Talks" before commencing 3 years as host of the early evening timeslot George Negus Tonight covering "trends and issues with an Australia-wide team of reporters and producers". The show was cancelled in November 2004, due to changes in regional funding to the broadcaster.

In 2005, Negus went on to host Dateline on the SBS network. In this role he became known as one of Australia's most respected journalists.

After becoming a regular on TEN's evening news program The Project, produced by Roving Enterprises In 2011, he began hosting 6:30 with George Negus on Network Ten, however this venture only lasted mere months.

Books

Negus has also written several books, including one based on his time in Italy, and co-wrote a six-part series of children's books with Kirsty Cockburn, his partner, in the early 1990s. His latest book is "The World from DownUnder -- A Chat with Recent History" and published by Harper Collins Australia. His best selling The World from Islam, published in 2004, an investigation of the Islamic world as seen from Negus's travels in the Middle East. In the The World from Islam, Negus defends Islam from claims of extremism, citing Islam's diversity.

Controversy

On the 28 February 2012 episode of The Circle, Negus along with Yumi Stynes, made comments about a photo of Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry recipient, coming out of a swimming pool. After tabloid criticism, they personally contacted Roberts-Smith who accepted their apology and agreed there was no malicious intent. Negus said his comments were taken out of context and he was not referring personally to Corporal Roberts-Smith.

On 13 September 2014, Fairfax newspapers issued an apology to Ms Stynes and Mr Negus, stating "Our interpretation was wrong and we accept that both Mr Negus and Ms Stynes were not referring to Cpl Roberts-Smith personally." News Limited publications, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and news.com.au also retracted the incorrect allegations.

Personal life

Negus lives in Sydney. His children were raised on a farm near Bellingen on the New South Wales northern coast, where he lived for 15 years with his wife, Kirsty Cockburn, herself a journalist and a collaborator on many of Negus's projects. Negus is a fan of association football and a former board member of the national governing body Soccer Australia, as it was known at the time.

Honours

Negus became a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2015 Australia Day honours.