Australian Press Council chair to retire
The Australian Press Council’s chair Neville Stevens will retire before the end of the year, the council has confirmed.
Stevens has been chair of the APC since January 2018, after a 30-year career in the public service, and chairs on the board of various private and public organisations.
He spent eight years as security for the department of communications, IT, and the arts, between 1993 and 2001, where he was involved in telco reform, and developing broadcasting and media policy. He was made an officer in the Order of Australia in 2002.
The APC is now looking for Stevens’ replacement, which it says suits “a person of the utmost integrity with the ability to guide and unify diverse perspectives.” The APC constitution dictates the chair cannot have worked in, or owned, any part of the Australian media.
Neville Stevens
The APC was established in 1976 as a self-regulatory body financed by commercial print and digital news media. Broadcasters, who are regulated by ACMA, are not part of the Council. The APC was considerably weakened in 2012 when Seven West Media left the body and set up its own standards and complaints board.
In recent years the APC has been criticised as a “toothless tiger”, and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) union announced its intention to withdraw in 2021.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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