Internationally renowned journalist, Phillip Knightley, will be guest speaker for the evening. In his address, the respected journalist and author, will look back on his 50 years as a reporter and casts a controversial eye over the craft’s future.

Writing about the Cronulla riots, Knightley said: “Why are there no laws in Australia to stop the provocative excesses of the media, especially the ‘shock jocks’?”

Knightley is well qualified to examine where journalism is headed. Born in Australia, he has worked most of his life in Britain. He was twice named Journalist of the Year (1980 and 1988) in the British Press Awards – only Knightley and John Pilger have won the award twice.

Knightley is the author of The First Casualty - The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Kosovo, as well as Australia: Biography of a Nation, a volume of autobiography A Hack’s Progress, and Philby: KGB Masterspy.

He was a special correspondent for The Sunday Times for 20 years (1965-85) and one of the leaders of its INSIGHT investigative team that broke stories such as the Kim Philby spy scandal, the Profumo sex scandal and exposed the effects of thalidomide on new-born babies.

In Australia Knightley has lectured on journalism, law, and war at the National Press Club and in the Senate, and he is a patron of the C.E.W. Bean Foundation for Australian war correspondents. He reviews non-fiction books for The Australian's Review of Books and The Age.

As well as being a great gathering for our industry, the 2006 Melbourne Media Dinner is a fund-raising event, and proceeds from the dinner go to the ALLIANCE SAFETY & SOLIDARITY APPEAL to assist colleagues in danger or difficult situation because of their work. In 2005 Australian journalists raised more than $18,000 to improve safety for journalists in the Philippines and to provide support for Nepalese journalists in exile in India. Some 36 journalists and media workers were killed in the Asia-Pacific region last year.