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Council structure

The Australian Press Council currently has 26 members, comprising

• the independent Chair and 10 “public members”, who have no affiliations with a media organisation;
• eleven nominees of media organisations which are "constituent bodies" of the Council (see below);
• four independent journalist members, who are not employed by a media organisation.
   

The independent Chair is chosen by the Council and has always been a judge or university professor. The public members and independent journalist members are appointed by the Council on the nomination of the Chair. The nominees of publishers are chosen by the media organisations which have agreed to support the Council and be subject to its complaints system. All members are expected to act and vote as individuals, not as representatives of any organisation or interest.

For further details, see the Press Council's Constitution.

Information on appointment of a Public Member from New South Wales is available here.

Council membership

Chair of the Council
(biography)

• Professor David Weisbrot AM

Public Members
(biographies)

• Hon John Doyle AC (Vice-Chair)
• Julian Gardner AM (Vice-Chair)
• John Bedwell
• Jennifer Elliott
• Julie Kinross
• Dr Felicity-ann Lewis
• Dr Suzanne Martin
• Andrew Podger AO
• Robyne Schwarz AM
• Melissa Seymour-Dearness

Industry Nominee Members
(biographies)

• Sean Aylmer (Fairfax Media)
• Vacant (nine.com.au)
• Tony Gillies (Australian Associated Press)
• Chris Graham (Representing smaller publishers) 
• Bryce Johns (APN News and Media)
• Matthew Ricketson (Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance)
• Susan Skelly (Bauer Media Group)
• Glenn Stanaway (News Corp Australia)
• Anita Quigley (Community Newspapers Australia)
• Bob Yeates (Country Press Australia)
• Vacant (Daily Mail Australia)

Independent Journalist Members
(biographies)

• Peter Kerr
• Simon Mann
• Anna Reynolds 
• Mike Steketee

Adjudication Panel Members
The members of the Council's Adjudication Panel are the Chair of the Council, all public and independent journalist members of the Council, three of the industry nominees on the Council and the following people from community and media backgrounds who are not current Council members:

Community background

• Cheryl Attenborough 
• John Fleetwood
   

Media background

• David Fagan
• Bob Osburn
• Russell Robinson
• Barry Wilson

Staff
(biographies)

The Council secretariat is based in Sydney and is headed by an Executive Director appointed by the Council. The current staff members are:

• John Pender (Executive Director)
• Lynda Burke (Administration Officer)
• Isabella Cosenza (Research and Standards Advisor)
• Shamim Islam (Office Manager)
• Amado Jovellana (Information Officer)
• Justin Levy (Complaints and Compliance Officer)
• Paul Nangle (Director of Complaints)
• Catherine Nguyen (Complaints and Governance Officer)
• Dr Betheli O'Carroll (Research and Standards Officer) - on leave
• Michael Rose (Director of Research and Communications)
   

Previous Chairs

• Sir Frank Kitto AC, KBE, PC (1976-1982)
• Prof Geoffrey Sawer AO (1982-1984)
• Hon Hal Wootten AC (1984-1986)
• Prof David Flint AM (1987-1997)
• Prof Dennis Pearce AO (1997-2000)
• Prof Ken McKinnon AO (2000-2009)
• Prof Julian Disney AO (2009-2015)

Constituent bodies

The "constituent bodies" of the Council are publishers and other organisations in the media industry which have agreed to provide funding for the Council, to cooperate with the Council's consideration of complaints against them and to publish any resultant adjudications. They also select the industry nominees on the Council

The full list of constituent bodies is shown below:

• Adelphi Printing Pty Ltd (publishes Monthly Chronicle)
• APN News & Media
• At Large Media (publishes New Matilda)
• Australian Associated Press
• Australian Rural Publishers Association
• Bauer Media Group (publishes titles such as Australian Women’s Weekly, People, Australian Geographic)
• Community Newspapers Australia
• Country Press Australia
• Crinkling News
• Daily Mail Australia
• Echo Publications Pty Ltd (publishes The Byron Shire Echo and Echonetdaily)
• emanila.com Pty Ltd (publishes The Filipino Australian)
• Fairfax Media (publishes titles such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Australian Financial Review)
• Focal Attractions (publishes mUmBRELLA.com.au)
• HuffPost Australia
• Independent Australia Pty Ltd (publishes Independent Australia)
• Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance
• News Corp Australia (publishes titles such as The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, Courier Mail,Adelaide Advertiser, Hobart Mercury)
• New Daily
• nine.com.au
• Private Media (publishes titles such as Crikey, The Mandarin, Smart Company, Startup Smart)
• Property Review Australia
• Schwartz Media
• The Bushland Shire Telegraph Pty Ltd (publishes Bush Telegraph Weekly)
• Urban Cinefile
• WorkDay Media (publishes Banking Day)

For further details, see Constituent Bodies and their Publications.