Christopher Wenner

Wenner was born in Kensington, West London, England. He was the third of the four sons of Michael Alfred Wenner (1921–2020), a British author, company director, former diplomat who served as Ambassador to El Salvador (from 1967 to 1971),{{cite news |title=Captain Michael Wenner, wartime paratrooper, commando and later diplomat – obituary |url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/captain-michael-wenner-wartime-paratrooper-commando-and-later-diplomat-–-obituary/ar-BB1dhUOh |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=MSN |date=1 February 2020}} and Gunnilla Ståhle (1931–1986), who was Swedish.{{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp142318/michael-alfred-wenner|title=Michael Alfred Wenner (information about Christopher Wenner near the end of the page)|work=National Portrait Gallery, London|accessdate=14 March 2016}} The surname he later used as a war correspondent was a variation on his mother's maiden name.

Wenner was educated at Stonyhurst College,{{cite web|url=http://www.stonyhurst.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Stonyhurst-Association-Newsletter-306_July13.pdf|title=Stonyhurst Association News – Newsletter 306 – July 2013 – The Roar of the Greasepaint (page 15)|work=Stonyhurst College, Lancashire|date=July 2013|accessdate=14 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314141654/http://www.stonyhurst.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Stonyhurst-Association-Newsletter-306_July13.pdf|archive-date=14 March 2016|url-status=dead}} a boarding independent school near Clitheroe in Lancashire, which he left in 1973, followed by Balliol College, Oxford, where he acted in the Dramatic Society.{{cite web|url=http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/productions/people/15994|title=Christopher Wenner|work=Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama|accessdate=14 March 2016}}

On 14 September 1978, Wenner joined the British children's television programme Blue Peter, replacing John Noakes, who had left three months earlier. However, he left on 23 June 1980 (on the same day as his co-presenter Tina Heath), after the production team decided not to renew his contract as he was "deeply unpopular with the viewers."Marson, Richard. "Blue Peter" 50th Anniversary Book: The Story of Television's Longest-running Children's Programme. Hamlyn Books 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-600-61793-8}}

Wenner returned to acting, taking a part in the 1984 Doctor Who adventure The Awakening, although in the final cut, his role was reduced to that of a non-speaking character. He then focused on journalism, although he returned to Blue Peter in 1983 and 1998 to celebrate the show's birthdays.

In 1985, whilst working as a war correspondent in Beirut, he went missing; he turned up again, safe and well, after 18 days. He had been detained by militiamen for 24 hours who had warned him off reporting a story about the hashish trade, and he had gone into hiding in a friend's house. In 1991, he entered East Timor, then occupied by Indonesia, with the documentary maker Peter Gordon to film a diving video. There, he was informed that a pro-democracy demonstration would be taking place during a funeral at the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital, Dili. He shot footage of the demonstration, preceding and during what would become known as the Santa Cruz massacre. As soldiers advanced, in a well-organised operation against a huge crowd of East Timorese engaged in peaceful protest, he filmed inside the cemetery among the dead and the dying. To avoid confiscation of his footage, he then buried it in a grave. After being questioned for nine hours, he returned under cover of darkness to exhume the footage. It was that footage that brought the plight of the East Timorese to world attention. In 1992, Yorkshire Television's First Tuesday episode "Cold Blood – the Massacre of East Timor", produced by Gordon and co-directed by Gordon and Wenner, was awarded the Amnesty International UK Media Award.{{cite press release | url=http://www.library.ohiou.edu/indopubs/1992/06/04/0013.html | title='Cold Blood' AI Winner | publisher=Reuters | date=4 June 1992 | accessdate=9 January 2013 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019135616/http://www.library.ohiou.edu/indopubs/1992/06/04/0013.html | url-status=dead | archivedate=19 October 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITVProgs/1992/01/07/Y05870109/ |title=FIRST TUESDAY (COLD BLOOD: THE MASSACRE OF EAST TIMOR) |publisher= ITN (Independent Television News) |accessdate=9 January 2013 |archivedate=19 October 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019111826/http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITVProgs/1992/01/07/Y05870109/ |url-status=dead}}{{cite book|author1=Constâncio Pinto|author2=Matthew Jardine|title=East Timor's Unfinished Struggle: Inside the Timorese Resistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdHlt6CSp54C&pg=PA270|year=1997|publisher=South End Press|isbn=978-0-89608-541-1|page=270}}{{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/86579--in-cold-blood-the-massacre-of-east-timor/ |title=In cold blood : the massacre of East Timor |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=22 January 2022 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

In 1999, Wenner returned to East Timor under the name "Max Stahl". He entered the country covertly by hiring fishing boats, in order to avoid the Indonesian military. This time he filmed Indonesian-backed violence on women and children in a refugee camp. For his coverage, he won the 2000 Rory Peck Award for Hard News.{{cite web|title=On the Birth of a Nation: Turning points {{!}} United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization|url=http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-6/on-the-birth-of-a-nation-turning-points/|accessdate=26 March 2017}}

In 2013, Wenner's audio visual material on East Timor's struggle for independence has been listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register as "On the birth of a nation: turning points". The material is also kept at the Max Stahl Audiovisual Centre for Timor-Leste ({{langx|pt|Centro Audiovisual Max Stahl em Timor-Leste}}) (CAMSTL). In December 2016, CAMSTL entered into a protocol with the National University of Timor-Leste and the University of Coimbra (UC) aimed at preserving the material in the form of an online image archive. In February 2019, Wenner gave a public presentation of the archive following its installation at the UC.{{cite web |last1=Fernandes |first1=Francois |last2=Santos |first2=Milene |title=Universidade de Coimbra disponibiliza o arquivo de imagens do Centro Audiovisual Max Stahl Timor-Leste |trans-title=University of Coimbra provides the image archive of the Max Stahl Timor-Leste Audiovisual Center |url=https://noticias.uc.pt/artigos/universidade-de-coimbra-disponibiliza-o-arquivo-de-imagens-do-centro-audiovisual-max-stahl-timor-leste/?q=max%20stahl |website=University of Coimbra |access-date=27 March 2022 |language=pt |date=22 February 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Santos |first1=Milene |title=Morreu o jornalista Max Stahl que registou o massacre de Santa Cruz em Timor-Leste |trans-title=Journalist Max Stahl who recorded the Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor has died |url=https://noticias.uc.pt/artigos/morreu-o-jornalista-max-stahl-que-registou-o-massacre-de-santa-cruz-em-timor-leste/ |website=University of Coimbra |access-date=27 March 2022 |language=pt |date=28 October 2021}} Since then, the archive has been accessible for research and educational projects.{{cite web |title=CAMSTL: Max Stahl Audiovisual Centre for Timor-Leste |url=https://www.uc.pt/en/camstl |website=University of Coimbra |access-date=27 March 2022 |language=en}}

In December 2019, the National Parliament of Timor-Leste voted unanimously to grant Wenner Timorese citizenship in recognition of his role in the fight for Timorese liberation.{{cite news |title=Morreu Max Stahl, o jornalista que documentou o massacre no cemitério de Santa Cruz, em Díli |url=https://tvi24.iol.pt/internacional/27-10-2021/morreu-o-jornalista-max-stahl |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=TVI24 |date=27 October 2021 |language=pt}}

Wenner was one of the first Western journalists to recognize the scope of tensions in Chechnya. He travelled there with cameraman, filmmaker and author Peter Vronsky in 1992 to report on the break-away republic and nuclear weapons materials smuggling for the Canadian produced television special The Hunt for Red Mercury.

In 1998, whilst working as an ITN journalist for Channel 4, Wenner was beaten by Serb civilians during a mass protest.

On 22 November 2019, Wenner was awarded the Order of Timor-Leste by President Francisco Guterres.{{cite news |last1=Baird |first1=Robert |title=Max Stahl awarded Highest Civilian Honour {{!}} TATOLI Agência Noticiosa de Timor-Leste |url=http://www.tatoli.tl/en/2019/11/25/max-stahl-awarded-highest-civilian-honour/ |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=Tatoli |date=25 November 2019}} In 2000 he won the Rory Peck award for his reports.

Wenner was a father of four, and ran his own production company while continuing his career in journalism. In April 2012, it was reported that he had been receiving treatment for throat cancer. On 28 October 2021, the President of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, announced that Wenner had died from cancer at a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, at the age of 66.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/bluepeter/presenters/wenner.shtml BBC – I Love Blue Peter – Christopher Wenner presenter biography]

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Category:1954 births

Category:2021 deaths

Category:British children's television presenters

Category:British male journalists

Category:British people of Swedish descent

Category:East Timorese journalists

Category:People educated at Stonyhurst College

Category:Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford

Category:Recipients of the Order of Timor-Leste

Category:British expatriates in Timor-Leste

Category:Deaths from cancer in Queensland