![]() Fellow leader-writer Spiro Zavos said: “In the sometimes-heated atmosphere of the newspaper office, he was always calm and thoughtful.” Hamish McDonald said: “He exuded the wisdom of a Zen sage.The Malaysian Education Act in 1996 states that the national language which is the Malay language becomes the main medium of instruction in educational institutions and English is accorded the status of a second language. ![]() Slee continued as leader-writer and produced some fine pieces of writing. Slee was devastated and offered to resign, but Fairfax would not accept it. The High Court then on appeal awarded $1.3 million and the parties decided to settle. Fairfax fought the action over several years but lost, eventually having more than $600,000 awarded against the company, a then-record for defamation damages in Australia. His pursuit of it in 1987/88 brought a writ from a solicitor, Nicholas Carson. One of those cases might well have been left alone. ‘In the sometimes-heated atmosphere of the newspaper office, he was always calm and thoughtful.’ He was, Justice Michael Kirby said, “a fine journalist who took an interest in an intricate case that most other rational human beings regarded as boring, irritating and a pain in the bum”. He again marked himself out as a journalist of note. Slee was then appointed Herald legal affairs reporter and settled down, enjoying his family and his music, including his guitar playing for which he had a passion. They married and in 1979 she came to Sydney with him, settling in Paddington, and had two boys, Ben and Dai. In Tokyo, Slee formed a relationship with Kaoru Kikuchi, then aged 24 and very shy. He also wrote about the Japanese comic books for adolescents and adults, manga, and described how raunchy they often were.”ĭuring Slee’s stay in Tokyo, his marriage broke up and Shubha returned to Australia with the children. One I recall was about Mount Fuji, its place in Japan’s culture, and how its graceful outline might have influenced the Japanese aesthetic of clean, minimal lines. Slee reported that the Japanese saw a contract as a relationship that required give and take when unexpected circumstances arrived. ![]() CSR kept sending ships laden with sugar, which stood offshore in an awkward stand-off. “One big story in his time was the sugar crisis, when Japanese customers found they had ordered more sugar than they could handle. Fellow journalist Hamish McDonald, who succeeded Slee as Tokyo correspondent in 1979, said: “In his time in Japan he would have seen Australia turning steadily from one of the victorious allies into a supplier of raw materials for its industrial advancement, and frequently reminded that ‘the buyer is king’ in the Japanese view. In the mid-1970s, he was appointed the Herald’s Tokyo correspondent and embarked upon what was the most productive period of his career. In 1970, Slee and Shubha, then with their five-year-old daughter, Aaisha, returned to Australia, where Slee accepted a job as a general reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald. He rose in student politics, became an editor of the student newspaper, On Dit, and managed to defeat a Sydney University law student, one Michael Kirby, for the vice-presidency of the National Union of Australian University Students. It was there that a radical side of him emerged. But he did and attended Adelaide University to study law. He was a sickly child, having a turned eye from birth, and there were fears he might not survive. John Ross Slee was born on Jin Wilmington, rural South Australia, the youngest of six children of wheat farmer Frederick Slee and Eleanor (nee Lutz). He had a gentleness of touch and intellectuality not universal in our profession.” Andrew Horvat, a Canadian journalist, said: “John was a true prince among men, in some ways too much of a gentleman for a profession that thrives on the disclosure of embarrassing secrets.” Gregory Clark, a former Australian diplomat, said: “I found John to be among the finest of journalists, with a keen interest not just in finding facts but what lay behind the facts also. ![]() Publisher Richard Walsh said: “He was an old-fashioned print journalist, believing that professional journalism could change the world for the better”. Credit:FairfaxĪs a legal affairs reporter in Sydney, he continued to take on the big issues, though at one point he got in too deep and endured a prolonged legal battle. John Slee, winner of the Golden Quill award, with Lindsay Simpson winning Merit Award.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |