Inaugural Medal to David McNicoll

The Australian Press Council has awarded its inaugural Australian Press Council Medal to one of its founding members, David McNicoll. Jack Herman reports.

The Australian Press Council Medal, inaugurated this year, is the Council's way of honoring a lifetime achievement in support of the print media, its self-regulation and the freedom and responsibility of the press. It will be awarded by the Council from time to time to worthy candidates.

The initial recipient, David McNicoll, has devoted his life to responsible journalism from his cadetship with The Sydney Morning Herald in 1933, through his service as a war correspondent and his subsequent career at the Daily Telegraph and Consolidated Press.

A career in journalism

McNicoll served in the AIF before becoming a correspondent and covering the D-Day landings. He was subsequently attached to Patton's Third Army as it raced across France towards Germany. He views his war correspondent's days as "a ringside seat in one of the most exciting episodes of the war, [and] it enabled me to meet some remarkable writers, including Ernest Hemingway, Irwin Shaw and Cornelius Ryan."

Just after the war, he scored a considerable scoop when he interviewed Argentina's Juan Peron. Two decades later he was to go to Robben Island to interview the then imprisoned Nelson Mandela. McNicoll was impressed by "his absolute certainty of eventual triumph for his cause; his extraordinary calm."

Returning to Australia in the late 1940s, he started the Town Talk column in the Daily Telegraph where he also served as a sub-editor. He fondly recalls his Telegraph columns, "I probably made as much public impact, and caused more controversy, with that column than with any of my other labors in journalism over the years." It was more than just a gossip column, and included investigations and many crusades.

McNicoll was Editor-in-Chief of Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) from 1953 until 1974. After stepping down, he became a columnist and editorial consultant to The Bulletin. Editors of that magazine reckon that a sizable chunk of its readership bought the magazine just for the McNicoll column, which carried on in much the same tradition as his earlier Town Talk pieces.

He was for many years the moderator of TV's Meet the Press and thus one of the most recognisable faces of Australian journalism.

His prominence enabled him to promote his views on the need for a free press and for responsible journalism. When the Council was mooted in 1976, McNicoll was one of the senior editorial figures involved in the negotiations towards the Council's formation. He suggested the appointment of retired High Court Justice, Sir Frank Kitto, as the founding Chairman.

The Council

McNicoll was appointed as a founding member of the Council by the then Australian Newspaper Council and, following the restructure of the Council in 1987, was appointed by ACP as its nominee to the Council. He served in that position until his retirement in June 1999.

Members of the Council recall McNicoll as having little time for humbug or pomposity, interpolating himself into debates with short, sharp statements addressed to long-winded speakers, such as "Who says so?" He was strongly of the view that many of the breaches of principles which came to the Council arose from inadequate training of journalists and constantly urged proprietors to ensure that their journalists were aware of their responsibilities.

Because of his renown from his column and his TV appearances, McNicoll was the best-known of the Council members and one that members of the public wanted to meet on the Council's frequent forays interstate and into regional centres in the 1990s. He expressed the view that the Council needed more exposure: "The public is interested in newspapers, they are critical of them, and for that reason they should be interested in the Press Council."

David McNicoll suffered a stroke in early 1999 from which he is recovering. He recently wrote his last regular column for The Bulletin as part of its 120th anniversary edition.

He was awarded the CBE in 1969 for his services to journalism and later created a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the French government.

The Medal

The Press Council Medal was presented by the Council's Chairman, Professor Dennis Pearce, at a special Press Council lunch in McNicoll's honour on 20 January 2000.

In addition to the members of the Council gathered from all over Australia, those at the lunch included some old comrades, Margaret Jones and Lenore Nicklin, McNicoll's son, DD, and daughter, Penny Nelson, and many of his colleagues from Consolidated Press, including publisher John Alexander and Bulletin editor-in-chief Max Walsh and editor Paul Bailey.

Professor Pearce said:

The Press Council has been most fortunate to have had the benefit of David McNicoll's wisdom and good sense throughout its existence.

David believes passionately in freedom of the press but recognises that with that freedom comes responsibility - a responsibility that he saw as the role of the Council to oversight.

His contribution to the Council is remembered with respect and affection by all who have served with him.

Professor Pearce referred to McNicoll's less well-known avocation, poet, and quoted the second stanza of his 1941 poem, Epitaph for a Soldier:

I ask one thing, that in still far-off days
Someone who knew me should in their daily round
Suddenly pause, caught by some sight or sound,
Some glance, some phrase, some trick of memory's ways
Which brings me to mind. Then shall I wait
Eager with hope: perhaps to hear 'How great
If he were with us still.' Then, at the end,
All I wish for - just: 'He was my friend.'

Jack R Herman

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