<
https://theconversation.com/the-australian-war-memorials-prize-controversy-betrays-the-institutions-purpose-to-tell-the-messy-truth-about-war-265373>
"The Australian War Memorial is in the news for reportedly retrospectively
changing the rules of its Les Carlyon prize for military history. This resulted
in it not being awarded to Walkley award-winning journalist Chris Masters’ book
about disgraced special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith.
Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes details the evidence Roberts-Smith
committed war crimes in Afghanistan. It describes the defamation proceedings
brought by Roberts-Smith against Masters, fellow journalist Nick McKenzie and
Nine Media.
Masters’ book had been chosen from a shortlist of six by an external judging
panel. (The shortlist was first compiled by an internal panel of memorial
employees.) Leaked correspondence from the Australian War Memorial suggests the
governing council revived eligibility criteria from a few years earlier (when
the prize was explicitly for emerging writers only), after Masters’ book had
been chosen as the winner.
This disqualified Masters, an author of multiple books. This was the third time
the biennial prize, established in 2020, was to be awarded. Instead, it has
been deferred."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
