Journalists should challenge systems and government: Hedley Thomas

Journalists must – and must be free to – challenge the criminal justice system at every level when it has failed, Hedley Thomas says in the latest episode of The Front. | LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

Hedley Thomas outside the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

Journalists must – and must be free to – challenge the criminal justice system at every level when it has failed.

This is the passionate argument of Hedley Thomas, Australia’s foremost investigative journalist, at the most dramatic moment of his career: in the NSW Supreme Court, a man Thomas directly accused of murder faces life, and death, in prison.

Christopher Michael Dawson, 73, was charged with murder after Thomas’ 2018 investigative podcast The Teacher’s Pet. He has pleaded not guilty; but if Justice Ian Harrison concurs with two coroners, and Thomas, Dawson will likely live out the rest of his days in jail.

Over the past two days in evidence at the trial, Thomas, 55, has set forth a powerful defence of his journalism and of the craft itself: fiercely independent, unafraid and unbound by the constraints, and the flaws, of the justice system as it exists.

In an interview for The Australian’s daily news podcast The Front, live in all podcast players now, Thomas says he will never apologise for conducting journalism at its sharpest edge.

“Journalism and journalists should be always challenging systems and government. If that includes the judiciary, or the office of the DPP, because there have been failures, because there have been faults, then so be it. I’m not there to uphold confidence in the institutions. No journalists should be there just to pay lip service to these organisations. They do very important work, but they are fallible. And where there are defects, where there are problems, these should be called out very loudly by journalists.”

In his evidence, Thomas agreed with defence counsel Pauline David he had, in fact, never met Christopher Dawson.

On Tuesday, that changed.

After leaving the witness box, Thomas and his counsel, along with his wife Ruth and sister-in-law, slipped into an anteroom outside the court for a private conversation.

Suddenly, the door flew open and there, not two metres from Thomas, and looking directly into his eyes, was Christopher Michael Dawson.

The anteroom, as it happens, has been used throughout the trial by Christopher Dawson, his lawyers and his brother, Peter.

Thomas didn’t know that.

Dawson didn’t know Thomas was in the room.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Dawson said.

And having apologised to the journalist, the accused murderer gently closed the door and walked away.