Allan Ashbolt
{{short description|Australian journalist, producer, and broadcaster}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}}
{{infobox person
| image =
| caption =
| name = Allan Ashbolt
| birth_name = Allan Campbell Ashbolt
| birth_place = Melbourne, Australia
| birth_date= 24 November 1921
| death_place = Sydney, Australia
| death_date = {{death date and age|2005|06|09|1921|11|24|df=yes}}
| education = Caulfield Grammar School
| occupation = {{hlist|class=nowrap|Journalist|producer|broadcaster}}
}}
Allan Campbell Ashbolt (24 November 1921 – 9 June 2005) was an Australian journalist, producer, and broadcaster.
Early life
He was born in Melbourne and attended Caulfield Grammar School. He served with the Australian Imperial Force in World War II.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?serviceId=A&veteranId=481952 |title=Allan Ashbolt war service details |access-date=8 November 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001738/http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?serviceId=A&veteranId=481952 |url-status=dead }} Following the war, Ashbolt began acting and helped establish the Mercury Theatre with Peter Finch among others. He appeared in government documentary films. Ashbolt was a film librarian at the NSW Film Council in the mid-fifties, before he was hired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as a producer.{{cite book |last1=Horner |first1=Jack |title=Seeking Racial Justice: An Insider's Memoir of the Movement for Aboriginal Advancement, 1938–1978 |date=2004 |publisher=Aboriginal Studies Press |isbn=978-0-85575-468-6 |pages=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uiGTckdxaT0C&dq=allan+ashbolt+and+mercury+theatre&pg=PA6 |language=en}}
Career
In 1959 he was appointed as the ABC's first North America correspondent. In 1963 he served as a correspondent and executive producer of Four Corners,[https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2011/08/08/3288585.htm "RSL Story"], abc.net.au. Retrieved 28 April 2017. which has become Australia's longest-running investigative journalism/current affairs television program. He was known for his belief that the ABC — which had been and was almost entirely conservative at the time — should promote free speech and controversial political content. Ashbolt held senior positions at the ABC, until retiring after a 25-year career with the network. He also wrote for the New Statesman, a leftist British political magazine.
In July 1975, Ashbolt produced "Pederasty", an ABC Radio program that featured an interview with "three men in their thirties who admitted sex relations with boys, and a teenage boy who said he had been involved in such relationships since he was 12".{{cite news |title=Police get complaint over ABC program |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald/162858572/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=15 July 1975}}{{cite news |title=Tape of program for vice squad |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-abc-pederasty/162858148/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=16 July 1975}}{{cite news |title=Radical giant of Australian broadcasting |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/radical-giant-of-australian-broadcasting-20050615-gdliic.html |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=15 June 2005}}
He died in Sydney in June 2005.{{cite news |title=Journalist Alan Ashbolt dies at 83 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-06-09/journalist-alan-ashbolt-dies-at-83/1589528 |accessdate=2 July 2020 |work=www.abc.net.au |date=9 June 2005 |language=en-AU}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cite news|last=Bowman |first=David |title=The lion of the ABC |date=15 June 2005 |publisher=Australian Policy Online |url=http://apo.org.au/commentary/lion-abc |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613222603/http://apo.org.au/commentary/lion-abc |archivedate=13 June 2011 }} Retrieved 28 April 2017.
“Ashbolt’s kindergarten” [https://thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blog/allan-ashbolts-ghost-still-haunts-conservative-free-abc/ Allan Ashbolt’s ghost still haunts conservative-free ABC] The Sydney Institute, 8 January, 2016.
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Category:Australian television producers
Category:Australian television journalists
Category:People educated at Caulfield Grammar School
Category:Australian Book Review people
Category:Australian Army personnel of World War II
Category:Journalists from Melbourne
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