Eminent investigative journalist named inaugural recipient of new Fellowship

Swinburne University of Technology has named renowned journalist Richard Baker as the inaugural recipient of the Beyond the Fault Lines Liffman Fellowship. 

Baker is a Walkley award-winning investigative journalist and podcaster. He has exposed a broad range of issues including the payment of bribes to foreign officials by subsidiaries of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and Chinese influence in Australian politics. 

Established by Swinburne Adjunct Professor, Dr Michael Liffman AM, the Beyond the Fault Lines Liffman Fellowship has been created to allow an eminent journalist to engage with Swinburne undergraduate students to discuss and develop methods for communicating complex and, at times, uncomfortable issues. 

As the Liffman Fellow, Baker will deliver the inaugural Liffman public lecture on Tuesday 8  lecture on Tuesday 8 November, interrogating how the media has an obligation to avoid the temptation to see everything in absolutes.  

The lecture will be a unique opportunity to learn more from Richard about the important role independent and objective journalism plays in a democratic society, and the creative use of innovative technologies and platforms to reach new audiences. 

“I am excited about working with Swinburne to interrogate the present state of journalism in Australia and hopefully provide a platform for how we can do it even better,” said Baker.  

“How we can keep the passion, continue to hunt the facts, but also embrace nuance and consider points of view that might challenge our own. 

“I am also looking forward to working closely with the next generation of journalists and communicators coming out of Swinburne and learning from them about how they consume news.” 

In addition to the annual public lecture, the Liffman Fellow will explore current social imperatives, encouraging respectful debate, open-mindedness and critical thinking, within the university and in the wider community. 

Baker is the recipient of a $10,000 award, and he will provide mentorship, student master classes and launch a specialist undergraduate student media project on the major contemporary social issues and debates of our time. 

Event Details:  

Beyond the Fault Lines Public Lecture
Tuesday 8 November 2022, 6:00pm-7:00pm 

Ethel Room, Hawthorn Hotel, adjacent to the Swinburne campus
481 Burwood Road 
Hawthorn VIC 3122