Nauru: Access and Control

Jim Middleton has been reporting national and international affairs since 1970, first for the ABC and now as a correspondent for Sky News. For two decades, he was ABC Political Editor in Canberra – covering Prime Ministers Hawke, Keating and Howard.

He was ABC North America correspondent in New York and Washington from 1980–1986, and has reported from every country in North, South and Southeast Asia – except North Korea. From 2008 to 2014, he presented Newsline and The World, broadcasting to and from Asia on Australia Network TV.

From 2008 until 2015, he was a member of the board of the Australia-Thailand Institute for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Wendy Bacon is a journalist and activist who is particularly interested in stories which are of public interest – but fail to get a fair run in the media.

Chris Kenny is Associate Editor National Affairs at The Australian newspaper and the host of Viewpoint on SkyNews. He has a weekly column in The Weekend Australian and in Adelaide’s Sunday Mail, and is a regular commentator on various radio and television programs.

Chris brings a vast amount of experience in media, politics and foreign affairs to his role. He started in journalism in South Australia three decades ago after initially pursuing a career, believe it not, as a park ranger.

He holds a BA (Journalism) from the University of South Australia and began at The Murray Pioneer in Renmark, South Australia, before joining The News in Adelaide, and moving on to television at the ABC’s 7.30 Report. He later covered state and federal politics for the Ten Network and Channel Nine Adelaide, while writing columns for The Sunday Mail, The Advertiser and The Adelaide Review.

Chris left journalism to become a political adviser to Liberal Premier John Olsen in 2000, rising to serve as chief of staff to Olsen’s successor, Rob Kerin. He switched to the federal scene in 2002, spending more than 5 years on the staff of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, where he served as media adviser and then chief of staff.

Paul Farrell is a reporter at Guardian Australia. He produces investigations about immigration detention, national security and corporate affairs. He's broken major stories about Australia's immigration detention system and was the lead reporter on the Nauru files, the largest cache of leaked documents ever published from within Australia's immigration detention system.

He also writes extensively about press freedom in Australia and how journalists' sources have been pursued by the Australian government.